Nutritional Status of Elderly in Government Aided and Private Run Old Age Homes of Cochin:A Comparative Study

The world is at present passing through an epidemiological transition with the rate of growth of elderly population exceeding the general population. By the year 2001, India will have the second highest population of elderly in the world with an absolute number of 76 million. The state with highest proportion of elderly in India is Kerala where the elderly constitute approximately 9.79 per cent of total population. Industrialization and urbanization together with the migration of the younger generation abroad has severe impact on the Indian society, with the care of the aged having emerged as a pressing social problem. To an extent, old age homes have filled this need. Kerala has the largest number of homes for the aged. A sharp contrast of environments was perceived to be existing in two types of institutional settings - those with free facilities, which are government aided and those having pay and stay facilities run by private undertakers. The study was an attempt to compare nutritional status of inmates of these two kinds of institutions.