Ageing and Its Impact on the Health of Elderly Citizens in Old Age Homes in Guwahati, Assam

Abstract

Ageing is a natural process which is inevitable. Everyone who is born in this world will eventually age with time. There is a rapid change in the demographic scenario and the growth rate of the older population is increasing gradually in India over the past few decades and it will continue to do so. This can be due to improvement in the field of the medical sector and various other factors as well. As a result, the aged are likely to suffer from problems related to health and health care, family composition, so on and so forth. In India, traditionally the concept of ‘Joint family’ was practised but with the advent of urbanization, modernization, industrialization, and globalization, there have been major structural and functional transformations in the family. The joint family system is disappearing in the course of time as the people now do not have time for their family because of their work as they have to stay away from their family in different places. People have started believing in ‘Nuclear family’ system because the standard and cost of living have gone high and working class people are not being able to look after their large family. This has led to the elderly people shift to the old age homes either forcefully or sometimes by their own choice (which is very rare). The elderly people suffer a lot emotionally. They go through a traumatic phase. At this stage of life, elderly people need a lot of care, love, support, and affection from their family. Deprivation from all these leads to depression, anxiety and sleep disorder and various other health problems like diabetes, hyper-tension, and high/low pressure, etc. including mental problems among the elderly people. There is an immense need for proper human rights and health policies for the well-being and upliftment of the health of older people.