Prevalence and Health Seeking Behaviour of NonCommunicable Diseases (NCDs) Among Elderly in India: Trends, Patterns and Determinants

Elderly population in India is increasing fast which indicates a growing share of population with more special needs for health and support. Understanding the morbidities and health‑seeking behaviour of elderly is essential for strengthening geriatric health‑care services delivery. The objective of this study was to study the trends, patterns and determinants of incidence and health seeking behaviour of NCDs among elderly in India. For this study four rounds of NSS unit level data has bee used. Prevalence rate of NCDs across socio-economic groups have been calculated for four rounds of NSS to see the changes. Logistic regression has been used to examine various factors that determine the prevalence as well as health seeking behaviour of elderly suffering from NCDs. The result showed that the overall NCDs prevalence is increasing over the years irrespective of socio-economic groups. However, it is more pronounced among elderly of urban area, currently unmarried, higher MPCE quintile, general catse, highly educated and southern region of India. The probability of suffering from NCDs increases with high income, unavailability of protected water, unclean cooking fuel usage, lack of latrine facility and belonging to northern region of India. As far as health seeking behaviour is concerned, elderly suffering from NCDs seek treatment from formal care than informal or no care at all if they are highly educated, from urban area, currently married and from western and southern region of India. Therefore, the policy implication of the study calls for the availability and accessibility of adequate medical facilities at affordable costs, development of a strong network of public health facilities primarily in rural India.