Common Health problems and Satisfaction of Health Services among Elderly in Nepal

Abstract

Introduction: Every country in the world is seeing an increase in the number and proportion of elderly people. Aging is on pace to be one of the most major societal changes of the twenty-first century which affects all sectors of society. The aim of the study was to assess factors affecting the utilization of health services among the elderly of Koshi Province, Nepal.

Methods: A quantitative descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among 357 elderly. A multistage sampling technique was used for the selection of eight municipalities and wards for obtaining a representative sample from each ward. A semi structured interview schedule was used for data collection procedure. Descriptive statistics and inferential statistics were used after the normality test to measure the association of selected variables and utilization of health services.

Results: The study finding revealed that more than two-third (70.3%) of the respondents was young old age. More than half of the respondents were female. Less than half (44.0%) of the respondents were hypertensive. Less than one-thirds (27.1%) and (16.8%) of the respondents had hypertensive in urban and rural respectively. More than half (57.4%) of the elderly people were neutral (satisfactory satisfied) whereas one-tenth (8.7%) of the elderly were highly satisfaction.

Conclusions: The study concludes that two-thirds of the elderly were satisfied with health care services facilities. Although one-thirds of elderly were still not satisfied with the health care facility; so enhance to provide quality service to elderly is essential.