Abstract:
Purpose: To identify the prevalence of respiratory symptoms among the elderly
people attend at selected old homes. Objectives: To estimate the prevalence of
respiratory symptoms, to find out the common respiratory symptoms, to identify the
influencing demographic factors for such exposure group in relation to age, sex,
previous occupations, long living area, smoking habit, past history of physical
exercises, history of respiratory diseases, family history of respiratory diseases and
past history of regular exposure to fume or dust and to figure out the level of
physiotherapy service reception for respiratory symptoms among the elderly people.
Methodology: The study design was cross sectional. Total 35 samples were collected
by simple random sampling. Data was collected by mixed type of questionnaire.
Descriptive statistics were used for data analysis which focused through table, pie
chart and bar chart. Results: The study shows that 62.9% (n=22) participants had
respiratory symptoms and male shows greater prevalence 54.5% (n=12). Participants
who were in between 68-72 years of age group were most commonly suffered from
respiratory symptoms 54.5% (n=12). 81.8% (n=18) participants, who were passing
most of their time in urban area were more experienced to respiratory symptoms than
semi urban area and most of the participants 45.5% (n=10) were service holder. Most
common symptom was cough 31.8% (n=7), followed by breathlessness 22.7% (n=5), whistling 18.2% (n=4) and Cough with chest congestion 18.2% (n=4). Least common
symptoms were stuffy nose 9.1% (n=2). Most of the participants 86.4% (n=19), had
no past history of physical exercises followed by hypertensive drug user 63.6% (n=
14), chest diseases 54.5% (n=12), family history of respiratory diseases 50% (n=11),
smoker 45.5% (n=10), were smoker and 18.2% (n=4), had the past history of regular
exposure to fume or dust. Among the participants no one received physiotherapy
treatment for their respiratory symptoms. Conclusion: Elderly people are more
vulnerable to have respiratory symptoms. From the data base, it was found that almost
two third of the participants reported respiratory symptoms and ratio of respiratory
symptoms was higher in male. More research should be undertaken on respiratory
symptoms among the elderly with an emphasis on larger sample sizes and response rate to be able to generalize the results and conclusions.
