Morbidity Pattern in Geriatric Patients Attending a General Out- Patient’s Clinic in a Tertiary Hospital in Nigeria: A Society with No Social Support System

Background: In developing countries, currently there is a paradigm shift from communicable to noncommunicable diseases causing severe morbidity among the elderly population. Despite this, social support system for this slowly increasing population is lacking living them with the full burden of providing for their health care needs. This study is aimed at assessing morbidity pattern among the elderly patients using a tertiary health care institution in Nigeria. Material And Methods: This is a retrospective review of morbidity pattern among elderly patients attending the General outpatients Clinic(GOPC),University of Uyo Teaching Hospital(UUTH) between January 2010 and December 2012 by using their Medical records. Information obtained included their bio data, living condition, dependency, diagnosis made at presentation etc. Results: Out of 37,748 adult patients seen within the study period, 4319 of them were aged 65 years and above, made up of 1755(40.6%) males and 2564(59.4%) females with male to female ratio of 1:1.6.A total of 1905(44.1%) of the geriatric morbidity were due to communicable diseases while 2414(55.9%) were due to noncommunicable diseases. Commonest communicable diseases were Malaria(44.6%) and Typhoid (24.8%) while diseases of the cardiovascular system (28.5%) and Bone/joints (25.8%) were the commonest non-communicable diseases. Conclusion: There is an emerging and overriding trend of non-communicable disease (NCD) among the elderly population in this region. Public health education on Lifestyle modification for the aging population may help in reducing this increasing tide of NCDs-related morbidity. Introduction of social security system would be of immense benefit by helping them to assess health care services.