Assessment of Disease Morbidity Pattern and Health Care Seeking Behaviour among the Elderly in Calabar Municipality, Cross River State, Nigeria

Aims: This study was aimed at assessing disease morbidity pattern and health care seeking behaviour among the elderly in Calabar Municipality, Cross River State, Nigeria.

Study Design: Descriptive cross-sectional study design

Place and Duration of Study: Calabar Municipal Local Government Area, Cross River State between Feburary 2015 to March 2015.

Methodology: Multi-stage sampling technique was used to select 200 elderly persons who gave consent to participate in the study. A semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect data from the respondents. Data collected were collated and analysed using IBM SPSS version 20.0 and results were presented in tables. Chi-square was used to test for association between categorical variables.

Results: The result obtained showed that respondents within the age bracket of 65-69years 74(37.0%) constituted majority followed by those aged 70-74years 56(28.0%) and 75-79years 42(21.0%). More than half of the respondents 110(55%) were females while the remaining 90(45%) were males. This study revealed that malaria 50(23.1%), high blood pressure 43(19.9%) and joint pain/arthritis 31(14.4%) were the most identified health problems suffered by the elderly and the hospital/healthcare centre was where most elderly persons sought for treatment whenever they fall ill. Expenditure on health services received was largely out-of-pocket expenditure 86(43.0%). Other respondents revealed that their children 64(32.0%), relatives/in-laws 28(14.0%), spouse 16(8.0%) and friend(s) 6(3.0%) were responsible for their hospital bills. Most respondents 106(53.0%) who patronized the hospital/health center were satisfied with treatment received. Increasing age and gender were significantly associated with disease morbidity pattern among the elderly (P < .05).

Conclusion: Improving geriatrics care through effective implementation of intervention programmes is pivotal to mitigating the rate of disease morbidity among the aged population.