Elder abuse has devasting consequences. It jeopardizes the health and well-being of seniors and has significant implications for the health and social support. Elderly abuse has been a serious social and public health issue. It undermines a senior's independence, dignity and sense of security. It damages lives and destroys relationships in the process. When there is a need of intervention in problems of aged, Geriatric social work has to play a key role in finding out solutions for problems of senior citizens. This present paper concentrates on finding intensity and forms of elderly abuse in Davangere District of Karnataka. Elderly abuse can take various forms such as physical, psychological, emotional or financial abuse. It can also be the result of intentional or unintentional neglect. In many parts of the world elder abuse occurs with little recognition or response. Until recently, this serious social problem was hidden from the public view and considered mostly a private matter. Even today, elder abuse continues to be a taboo, mostly underestimated and ignored by societies across the world. Evidence is accumulating, however, to indicate that elder abuse is an important public health and societal problem.

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Falls are being acknowledged as having far reaching consequences for the quality of life of the aged; yet there are not many studies conducted in India. This paper attempts to provide some insights on the effects of falls on the life of the elderly and also for the caregivers. Objective: The broad objective of the study is to understand the effects of falls among the elderly population. It helps in interpreting the causes and the effect of falls in the future life of the elderly people. It ultimately sheds some light on how the falls of the elderly affect the life of their caregivers as well. Methods: Qualitative research was carried out in Thrissur district of Kerala among those who experienced falls between the time period of January 2015 to January 2016. The data was collected in the month of May 2016. In-depth interviews with victims of falls and their care givers were conducted. Key informant interviews were also used as a method for collecting data. Results: The findings of the study revealed that age was a major risk factor in falls. Other risk factors such as history of falls and non-communicable diseases also played a significant role in contributing to falls among the elderly. As a result of falls, majority of the respondents opted for treatment in private hospitals which ultimately resulted in high healthcare expenditure. Restriction of activities among majority of the respondents were reported as a consequence of falls, which resulted in change in attitude of the elderly people, mostly leading to loss of confidence along with an increase in fear of fall. The caregivers were mainly involved in assisting the elderly in their routine activities. There was a constant need of support and assistance for the elderly for performing their activities which to some extent was burdensome to the caregivers. Conclusions: Falls among the elderly are resulting in people getting affected not only physically but psychologically as well. The ultimate consequence is more social withdrawal and less activities resulting in a change in attitude of the elderly. The health awareness among the people of Kerala also results in people seeking quality treatment which most of them considers, is available in private hospitals. This ultimately results in increased healthcare expenditure which turns out to be a burden on the productive population especially in a scenario where majority of the elderly is remaining uninsured.

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Objective: Elderly denture wearers are vulnerable to compromised nutritional health due to various factors. Dietary guidance is an integral part of treatment for denture wearers. Evaluation of nutritional status is important for any nutrition or dietary modification. The purpose of this comparative study was to evaluate the nutritional status of elderly dentulous, denture wearing and completely edentulous patients. Methods: 120 healthy Male and Female patients between the ages of 40 to 80 years were selected and divided into three sample groups. All three groups are made to answer two forms that is Mini nutrition assessment tool (MNA) form and food frequency form. Results: According to food frequency form, 41/44 and 40/40 of dentulous and denture wearing patients respectively have roti whereas only 33/36 of edentulous patients have roti; 44/44 and 40/40 of dentulous and denture wearing patients respectively have rice and only 29/36 of edentulous patients have rice. According to mini nutritional assessment, 63.9% of the edentulous subjects were either malnourished or at the risk of malnutrition; 90% of denture wearing patients had normal nutritional status; and very minute difference of 90.9% of dentulous patients with normal nutritional status. Conclusion: Tooth loss and denture wearing, both of which affect many Indians as they age, are associated with a decrease in dietary adequacy.

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Background: Certain risk factors present in the immediate housing environment may contribute to falls. Research shows one half to two thirds of falls occur in or around the house of elders. There is a need to keep the houses of elder's age friendly to prevent falls and enable them to do their daily routine comfortably. Objectives: To assess the proportion of elderly (≥60 years) houses that comply with housing standards to prevent falls using fall prevention screening checklist. Method: Observational checklist was prepared from recommended standards of home-safety for fall prevention and modified to screen the individual rooms in rural houses of elders. A total of 655 houses were screened for the study. Results: Common housing risk for fall identified were poor lighting of living room (95%) and bedroom (94%) and absence of light switch near the bed (63%) in the bedroom. 73% of bathroom was located outside the house with 41% having uneven /slippery surface. Only 68.2% had personal toilet of which 66% was present outside the home, 98% had no handrail and absence of western toilet in 62%. Area surrounding the house had stones, leaves and other obstacles in 44% of homes. Conclusion: Overall, using the fall-prevention screening checklist, almost all houses were found to be risky for fall with only very few houses being found to be fall-risk free. Further research has to be done to establish the validity of this tool or to recommend new standards for conditions peculiar to rural India that potentially appear to contribute to fall.

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Objective: To study the prevalence of self-medication practices amongst elderly population in urban health center of Amravati, Maharashtra. Materials & Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in April 2015-July 2015 data were collected by personal interviews using pretested questionnaires. The sample size was calculated using the formula n= 4pq/d2 considering p as 56% and allowable error 10%. A total of 320 elderly people were included in the survey. The eldest member of the family, present at the time of the visit was interviewed. Data were collected from 320 persons and analyzed using SPSS version 16.0. Results: The overall prevalence of self-medication was 48%. Allopathic drugs were the commonest mode of self-medication (95%). The commonest reason for self-medication was easy availability of medicines in medical stores and other shops, time saving factor (69%). Local pharmacist (89%) was the main source of information. Joint and muscle pain was the commonest indication identified for self-medication (89%). Conclusion: The study revealed that 48% of elderly population is influenced by self-medication practices without consulting doctors and the commonest causes for self medication were musculoskeletal pain, headache and fever.

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Objective: To identify the needs of rural elders (≥ 60 yrs) and to assess the challenges faced by their caregivers in providing care for the elders, in rural Southern India Methodology: The study was a community based cross-sectional study, conducted in a rural block in Tamil Nadu, India in 2016. First part of the study consisted of conducting four focussed group discussions (FGDs) with male and female elders and caregivers respectively. Based on the themes from the FGDs, a structured questionnaire for the quantitative study (part two of the study) was designed. We could interview 158 elders and 96 caregivers. Results: The needs of the elders were found mainly to be in the areas of food, finances and emotional aspects. Study revealed 83 (52.5%) of the elders reported having to cook for themselves, 69 (43.6%) reported that they did not receive old age pension. The caregivers did not perceive taking care of elders as a burden.

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Relapsing polychondritis (RP) is an auto-immune disease with varied presentation. We are reporting a case of RP presented with auricular chondritis, sensory neural hearing loss, joint pain, skin rash with ulcer over knee. This patient also had positive anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibody (C-ANCA for PR3) which makes it an attention-grabbing case.

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Here, we report a case of 71 years old male, presenting with a left sided testicular tumor without any reported inguinal, abdominal or peripheral lymphadenopathy, diagnosed as Non-Hodgkins lymphoma of testis on histo-pathological examination and confirmed by immunohistochemistry (IHC).

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Background: Present study is a retrospective analysis of three years data obtained from Bone mineral density scan (DEXA) done as per the established WHO guidelines from 956 diverse Indian geriatric study subjects enrolled in senior citizen health package offered by Apollo Hospitals, Chennai. Materials and methods: Densitometric abnormalities, BMD abnormalities of the DEXA scan data obtained from femoral head and neck region, lumbar spine region were calculated using established methods from both genders. Gender specific comparison of data was done at P<0.05 level of statistical significance. Results: Of the enrolled 956 study subjects 49.4% were men and 50.6% were women. Gender wise comparison of the data revealed a statistically significant level of osteoporotic changes (p<0.05) and osteopenia changes of the enrolled study subjects in spine region and femoral neck region. Data obtained from spine region revealed 37.5% osteopenic changes in male when compared to female who had 45.6%. Osteoporotic study data revealed 24% in male and female population had a slightly higher change 29%. In femoral neck region male had 48.3% and female had a high prevalence of 57.1% osteopenia changes. Osteoporotic changes of femoral neck region revealed 19.2% in male and 17.2% in female population. Conclusion: Since this study revealed high prevalence of osteoporosis in Indian males, we recommend follow up studies to address its significance. We conclude that Bone density (DEXA) scan in geriatric health

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Background: Ageing, though a graceful period, is associated with problems related physical and mental health, social isolation and financial crunch. Aims: Present study aims to evaluate the efficacy of Preksha Meditation (PM) in promoting mental health in elderly population. Methods: This was a prospective, randomized, case control study on 58 subjects (37 males and 21 females) who were administered a PM training module for 4 months. Individual measurements were carried out at the baseline and after 4 months of practice in almost similar conditions. Two standard psychological evaluation tools were used i.e. WHO Quality of Life-BREF (WHOQOL-BREF) and Hospital Anxiety and Depression Score (HADS). Results: Following 4 months practice of PM there was an improvement in all domains of WHOQOL-BREF ranging from 3 point to 5.7 i.e. psychological health (29.3%), physical health (24.1%), social health (12.1%) and environmental health (29.3%) and in stress level (17.2%). There was improvement in depression in 7 of 12 subjects and in anxiety in 6 of 8 subjects. Conclusions: Preksha Meditation is a cost-effective, non-invasive intervention with minimal risk of adverse effects and can be safely recommended for promotion of mental health in elderly.

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Aims and Objectives: Elderly persons are highly susceptible to infectious agents and they acquire infectious diseases easily, compared with the general population. Normal physiological changes of aging, coexistence of chronic diseases, alteration of host defense mechanisms and environmental exposure are the major factors associated with increased frequency and poorer prognosis of infectious diseases in these patients. The study was undertaken to assess the prevalence and the current status of fungal infections in the geriatric population from a tertiary care hospital located in East Delhi. Materials and Methods: A retrospective study was conducted over a period of one year among geriatric patients presenting with clinically suspected fungal infections from various clinical departments in the mycology laboratory. All samples were analysed on direct microscopy by 40% KOH in nails and 10% KOH for other samples and Gram staining for yeast. For fungal culture all samples were inoculated on two isolation media; one sabouraud's dextrose agar (SDA) without antibiotics and the other SDA with chloram-phenicol and cycloheximide. Results and conclusions: Total of 453 samples received from 420 geriatric patients were analysed. Among the study subjects 66.90% patients belonged to age group 60-65 years, only 2.85% were 81 years onwards and 71.42% were males. The most frequent received sample was nail 57.17%. A total of 197 samples were positive for fungal elements, of which yeast were 44(22.33%) and 153 (77.66%) were hyphae positive on direct examination. Out of total 66 fungal isolates obtained from all samples, 22 isolates (33.33%) were with Trichophyton, 13 isolates with Candida spp. (20/66) 30.30% and 6 isolates with Aspergillus spp. (9.09 %) as the most frequent growth.

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