Morbidity Profile, Functional Assessment and Satisfaction Among Elderly Receiving Health Care Services From Private Health Care Providers of Mangalore City: A Cross Sectional Study

Background: Private sector (which is the largest health care provider in India), is expensive & often the only one providing the kind of services needed by the elderly. There are no published studies from India reporting the satisfaction of the elderly about the health care services from the private sector. So this study was undertaken with the following objectives 1. To describe morbidity pattern & to assess functional status among the elderly receiving their care from the private hospitals 2. To know their satisfaction about health care services obtained from the private hospitals. Materials & Methods: An interview based cross sectional study was conducted among elderly (60 years and above) receiving health care services from the private hospitals of Mangalore city. Elderly were assessed for 1. Activities of Daily Living [ADL], 2. Instrumental activities of daily living [IADL], 3. Satisfaction about the health care services received by them in private hospitals. The data was analyzed using SPSS software for windows, version 16.0. Chi-square test was applied to know if the observed differences between socio demographic factors, dependency in physical activity and their type of care (subsidized or free) received by those elderly patients were statistically significant. Results: Majority (132 out of 189) of the study participants were between 60 to 74 years of age group. There was a predominance of Non Communicable disease / conditions {like hypertension (89.4%)}. Assessment of ADL & IADL revealed that, dependency (38.6%) was noticed for household work. Dependency was seen in patients (elderly) with advancing (75 years and above) age groups (p < 0.005). Most of the elderly were not satisfied with health care services they were receiving even though it was free / subsidized. Conclusion: 1. there was a predominance of Non Communicable disease (hypertension, visual impairment and diabetes mellitus) among those elderly who were receiving their care in private hospitals of Mangalore city. 2. Most of the elderly receiving their care from the private hospitals of Mangalore were capable of performing their physical activities independently. 3. Most of the elderly were dissatisfied with the health care services they were receiving in the private hospitals of Mangalore city irrespective of the type of services that were provided to them (paid/ free/subsidized). 4. Those elderly who had intact ADL & IADL were also dissatisfied.