City Slum Health
77pc elderly people at high health risk: Study
The elderly people in the city slums are highly vulnerable due to absence of civic amenities, particularly lack of access to economic activities, healthcare and safe drinking water.
The overwhelming majority (77.8 percent) of the elderly people suffer from health related problems in the city slums, according to a recent study.
It revealed that the incidence of illness was higher (80.7 percent) among elderly women compared men (75.2 percent). The major health related problems of the older persons were fever (49.7 percent), pain (36.3 percent), weakness (21.2 percent), asthma or breathing problem (14.5 percent), gastritis or ulcer (13.5 percent) and other problems including rheumatism and eye diseases.
PRDA with financial support from HelpAge International conducted the study titled “Older People in Dhaka Slums: A Socio-Economic Assessment” on 10 slums of Dhaka City from October 2010 to January 2011.
About 59.2 percent elderly people got treatment in a pharmacy or dispensary. Around 17.4 percent sought treatment from public health care facilities, 14.7 percent from private doctors and 7.1 percent from NGO facilities.
Nearly 11.6 percent also consulted homeopaths, kabiraj or hekim, health workers and unqualified service providers. They had selected these providers mainly because of low treatment cost and short distance, said the study.
Consultant of the Population Research and Development Associates (PRDA) Naushad Faiz said the poor elderly people in the city slums face various challenges in getting healthcare, financial support, work opportunity, improved environment and infrastructure development.
Faiz said about two-thirds of the elderly people in slums are engaged in household works with the percentage of women higher than men.
Referring to the challenges of the elderly, he said about 6.5 million people in the country are visually impaired. Of them, 40 percent are elderly while most elderly slum dwellers are visually challenged. Naushad Faiz said that the elderly slum dwellers will face serious health hazards in about 8-10 years for lack of civic amenities.
While contacted, Shashwatee Biplob, Social Protection and Policy Manager of the HelpAge International stressed the need for taking more collaborative work to ensure the income security, social protection and poverty prevention for older people.
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