Prevalence of multi-morbidities among older adults in India: Evidence from national Sample Survey organization, 2017-18

This article describes the prevalence of multi-morbidity and its association with socioeconomic and demographic factors using National Sample Survey 2017-18 data, on 42756 older adults aged 60+. The prevalence of multi morbidity is assessed as the count of self-reported morbidity among the older adults. Bivariate and logistic regression is estimated to examine the covariates of multi-morbidity. Overall, our study found that there was 277 older adults per 1000 population who reported their morbidity, co-morbidity and multi-morbidity. The prevalence of multi-morbidity was higher at a higher level of education, income and in urban areas. While a higher prevalence in multi-morbidity is observed among the other backward community compared to the forward caste. The multivariate analysis suggests that compared to individuals aged 70 years and above were more likely to report multi-morbidity as compared to individuals aged 60-64 years [OR:2.17; CI: 1.602-2.939]. In the economic groups, individuals belonging top 20% of the income groups has higher odds of reporting multi-morbidity as compared to those individuals belonging to the bottom 20% of the population [OR; 10.63, CL; 5.223-21.657]. Further, hypertension along with diabetes was the most common reported multi-morbidity. Policy initiatives aiming to reduce the burden of these multi-morbidities must focus on reorienting programme through increasing public investment in health. These investments must increase by providing preventive care facilities for the early prevention of diseases and improving the provision of geriatric curative services both in rural and urban areas as needed by the community in India.