Ageing, Health Condition and Nutrition
among Elderly people of Pondicherry, India :An Anthropological Insight
*Dr Ajeet Jaiswal,
*
Ajeet Jaiswal, Assistant Professors, Department of Anthropology, Pondicherry
University, Puducherry-605014.;
Abstract:
The present
study examined the relationship among body composition, measures of self-rated
health and activities of daily living in a group of free living elderly aged
>60 years belonging to poor economic status. A sample of 147 subjects (84
males, 67 females) from Pondicherry, India was selected. The subjects were
divided into three age groups i.e. 60-69, 70-79 and >80 years for
comparison. Mean height, weight, circumferences of waist and hip and WHR were
higher in males than females with no difference in BMI. None of the
anthropometric variables showed significant association with age. Majority of
the subjects rated themselves as ‘poor’ or ‘fair’ self-rated health and this
corresponds well with the lower mean values of anthropometry as well as
activities of daily living, well-being and memory and cognitive function,
impaired health aids and in general health. Polytomous logistic regression
showed that subjects with the highest score on well-being compared to the
lowest score rated 0.325 times (CI: 0.124, 0.851; P<0.05) good vs fair. The
odds ratio was 0.519 times (CI: 0.206, 1.306) between good vs poor. Subjects
who rated their health as good/fair tended to have BMI in the normal range. In
the poor self-rated health group a maximum of 55% of males and 47% of females
were below 19 units of BMI, which was reflected in the increase in odds ratio
of 1.361 in males and 1.134 in females between good vs poor health ratings. The
findings reveal that well-being and BMI are related to self-reported health
status.
Keywords:
Anthropometry, Health, Nutrition, Puducherry, Elderly, BMI.
