TO STUDY THE CLINICAL PROFILE OF HYPERTENSION AND DIABETES MELLITUS IN ELDERLY PATIENTS.

BACKGROUND: The prevalence of hypertension and diabetes increases with age and they form major risk factors for increased morbidity and mortality rates among elderly. Ÿ The clinical presentation of hypertension and diabetes in this subgroup is somewhat different from younger group of patients Ÿ The Hospital admission rates not only depend on the increased prevalence of non communicable risk factors but also on nutritional status and socio-demographic prole in geriatric population. AIM OF THE STUDY Ÿ To study the clinical,laboratory and complication prole of elderly hypertensives and diabetes Ÿ To study associated cardiovascular risk factors and comorbid illness in them Ÿ To study the frequency ,reason for admissions to medical wards in these people. MATERIALS & METHODS: Patients aged 60 years and above, admitted to the medical wards of Santhiram medical college and hospital with either diabetes mellitus or hypertension or both were taken for the study. These patients were evaluated for the presence of cardiovascular risk factors and target organ damage. The period of the study was 6 months, Ethical Committee approval was obtained for the study. RESULTS: Half of these patients belonged to the age group of 60 – 75 years.Males being more than females by ratio of 1.5:1. Most people in this study were known hypertensive 44(69.8%) with average duration of hypertension for 3.4 years . Target organ damage was seen in 54% of these patients. Totally 44 (58.7%) patients were diabetics with average duration of diabetes for 2.6years, of them 34(77.2%) of the diabetics were centrally obese . 34(75.6%) of males were smokers and 22(48.9%) were alcoholics,43.3% of females were overweight .34.7% of patients had hypercholesterolemia. In this 68(89.3%) of the patients were found to have chronic kidney disease, study 48(64%) had cardiac complications in the form of coronary artery disease or congestive heart failure. The Major cause for hospital admissions was heart failure (33.5%). CONCLUSION: Awareness among the geriatric population on the need for early detection and treatment compliance for hypertension and diabetes is poor. This calls for community wide education on these non-communicable diseases. Cardiac complication were most common macrovascular complication among these people and most common microvascular complications being renal diseases. cardiac complications are the major cause for morbidity and mortality.