Prevalence of Self-reported Infectious and Non-infectious Diseases among the Geriatric Population of Rural and Urban Areas of Bangladesh: A Community Based Cross Sectional Study

Abstract

People aging from 65 years to above are known as the “geriatric” group of population according to the WHO. Geriatric health issues including infectious and non-infectious diseases are increasing in Bangladesh due to the increased life expectancy and other socio-demographic factors like lifestyle, education, occupation etc. The objective of this study was to estimate the prevalence of infectious and non-infectious diseases among the elderly people and their care seeking pattern in

the rural and urban areas of Bangladesh. This cross sectional study was conducted using a semi- structured questionnaire with 260 male and female participants from rural and urban areas of two

districts in Bangladesh, Comilla and Chittagong. The prevalence rate of infectious disease was found as 27.10% in urban area and 16.70% in rural area. On the other hand the prevalence rate of non-infectious disease was 77.90% in the urban site and 70.80% in the rural site. Overall, the disease rate has been found to be higher among the males than the females and the health expenditure is much higher among the urban people than the rural population.