HEALTH STATUS OF ELDERLY PEOPLE IN SISTAN AND BALUCHISTAN PROVINCE

The aging of the population is a great challenge of the public health in this century. The health promotion of the elderly people requires a comprehensive and accurate understanding of their health status.
This cross-sectional study has assessed the health status of 191 old people ≥ 60 in Sistan and Balouchestan province that selected by a multi-level cluster random sampling. General health data was collected using SF-36 questionnaire, nutrition status was assessed using Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA), depression status was detected by the geriatric depression scale-15 (GDS-15), functional status was assessed using the activity daily living (ADL) and instrumental activity daily living (IADL) questionnaires, as well as, the information about demographic, history of diseases, vaccination, participation in social activities, and the utilization of elderly care services were evaluated by an approved questionnaire. History of hypertension was asked from the participants. Moreover the blood pressures of them were twice measured.
The mean age of the participants was 69.81 (8.32) years. The health status was reported excellent and bad by 4.2% and 9.4% of the participants, respectively. The prevalence of fall in recent year, memory disorder, hearing and visual impairment, and malnutrition were 35.3%, 15.6%, 30.3%, 56.6%, and 8.9%, respectively. The prevalence of dependency in "activity of daily living" and "instrumental activity of daily living" were 25.8% and 58.2%, respectively.
It seems that the prevalence of malnutrition, impaired ADL and IADL, and memory impairment in the older population of Sistan and Baluchestan are above the national and global averages.