HEALTH STATUS OF ELDERLY PEOPLE IN NORTH KHORASAN: A CROSS-SECTIONAL STUDY

Improved in health condition, reduced fertility rates, and increased life expectancy has increased number and proportion of elderly population. This study was reported the health status of older population in North Khorasan province. This is a cross-sectional study that enrolled 99 subjects (40 men and 59 women) ≥ 60 years by a multi-levels proportionate cluster random sampling method.
Required information was gathered by means of a demographic questionnaire. Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA), Geriatric Depression Scale-15 (GDS-15), Katz's basic activity of daily living, and Lawton's instrumental activity of daily living were administered. Measurements of anthropometric and blood pressure were performed based on standard The prevalence of diabetes and hypertension in elderly, were 17.7% and 57.6%, respectively. Depressed mood was observed in 36.4% of the participants 36.4% of the participants and 18.2 percent of them reported that their health condition was bad. In addition, 73.5% of the elderly had complained about any bodily pain. As well as, 22.6% of the participants used opium at least once during the last year. It seems that the health status of the elderly in North Khorasan province is not suitable in many indicators, such as hypertension, malnutrition, drug abuse and complaints of pain and their health status was worse than the national average of Iran. A special attention requires to the health status of elderly in this province .