Elderly in Delhi’s old-age homes battling malnutrition: Study

NEW DELHI:  A section of the elderly population living in Delhi’s charitable old-age homes are battling malnutrition while a much larger group is at “the risk of it”, said a study by an AIIMS doctor. This is one of the major health issues faced by this age-group followed by dementia and depression. According to the study conducted by Dr Prashun Chatterjee from Department of Geriatric Medicine at The All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS),12.9% of the participants who joined the study were malnourished and 64.1% were at the risk of malnutrition.

Not only this, low vision was observed in 69.47% of the people, hearing impairment in 20.61%, risk of fall in 18.32%, CI in 46.56%, and depression in 62.59% of the participants. Twenty per  cent of the participants had functional loss due to various reasons.

The 12.9% participants elderly people involved in the study were malnutrition. According to Dr Prashun, due to lack facilities in these old-age homes this issue has been witnessed. In such a situation, due to lack of proper nutrition, they were more prone to other diseases. 

According to Dr Prashun, the owner and caretaker of these old-age homes in Delhi NCR need to be proactive in screening the residents for various geriatric syndromes to provide quality care to the residents.
“In our studies we focused on senior charitable old-age institutions across Delhi NCR where we found that they have become a source of shelter and food for the elderly but that should not be the only things to be taken care of when it comes dealing with senior citizens in old-age homes,” he said. 

Dr Prashun said that most of elderly population there don’t indulge in outdoor activities and the old age homes are like dormitories where the physical and mental fitness of the residents gets affected.
“Its like end of life management at these old age homes. Even if someone who is not suffering from severe health issues, they tend to develop issues as these institutions are not much about exercise and mobility,” he said.