Government released Longitudinal Ageing Study in India(LASI)

News: Union Health Ministry has released the Longitudinal Ageing Study in India(LASI).

Facts:

• LASI: It is a full scale national survey of scientific investigation of the health, economic, and social determinants and consequences of population ageing in India.
• Study conducted by: National Programme for Health Care of Elderly, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare has undertaken the study through International Institute for Population Sciences, (IIPS), Mumbai in collaboration with Harvard School of Public Health, University of Southern California, USA, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and National Institute on Ageing
• Objective: To provide a longitudinal database for designing policies and programmes for the older population in the broad domains of social, health and economic well-being.
• Coverage: The study covered a panel sample of 72,250 individuals age 45 years and above, including 31, 464 people above 60 and 6,749 oldest-old persons aged 75 and above.

Key Takeaways from the study:

Source: TOI

• In the 2011 census, the 60+ population accounted for 8.6% of India’s population, accounting for 103 million elderly people. Growing at around 3% annually, the number of elderly people will rise to 319 million in 2050.
• About 75 million elderly persons in India or one in two people above 60 years of age suffer from some chronic disease.
• About 40% have some form of disability and as high as 20% are suffering from mental health issues. Also, 27% of this population group has multi-morbidities which translates to roughly 35 million people.
• About a third(32%) of elderly age 60 and above have hypertension, 5.2% were diagnosed with chronic heart disease and 2.7% with stroke. The self-reported prevalence of diabetes mellitus among older adults age 45-59 is 9% and among the elderly age 60 and above is 1%.
• The prevalence of asthma, bronchitis, and COPD is higher among elderly age 60 and above (5.9%, 1.6% and 2.8% respectively) than in older adults aged 45-59 (3.1%, 0.7%, and 1.6% respectively).

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