Prevalence of disability among the elderly people in an urban slum of Chennai – A cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND: Human population is ageing worldwide. Disabilities are common with ageing; but most of the studies focused on the medical model of disability. However, “disability and elderly” encompasses a larger spectrum of conditions and needs to be studied as a broader concept. This study was done to estimate the prevalence of disability in elderly people in terms of WHO DAS 2.0 Scale and to identify the factors associated with disability in the elderly people. METHODOLOGY: A sample of 220 elderly people was enrolled by multistage random sampling from TP Chatram, a slum in Chennai. A pre-tested semi-structured questionnaire about the socio-demographic details was administered. The disability was assessed by WHO DAS 2.0 Scale. The data entered in Microsoft Excel were analysed using SPSS 21.0. Results are expressed in mean, proportions, and odds ratio appropriately. RESULTS: The prevalence of disability was found to be 20.9%. The mean disability scores were more in the domain of getting along with people (34.68 ± 14.70), followed by the domain of getting around (30.64 ± 24.33) and societal participation (25.55 ± 21.97). Advancing age, female gender, presence of chronic illness were the factors increasing the risk of disability. Education confers significant protection against the development of disability. CONCLUSION: It is not only the physical inability that disables the elderly but also the lack of societal participation. So it becomes the responsibility of every individual to make the elderly people socially inclusive apart from screening them to detect disability in the earlier stage itself.