Background: In Tanzania elders are respected as repositories of inherited wisdom, experienced\nand principal decision makers in the community. However, evidence shows that such repositories\nare no longer considered important in most societies. As a result elders are neglected with some\nmistreatment in terms of provision of health and social services for instance; at times they get denied\nand ignored of their obvious rights, ignoring their retirement benefits and the rights onto\nfree social services as per the Tanzania National Ageing Policy of 2003. Elders are therefore faced\nwith physical, psychological and geriatric social suffering. It is on this basis that this study tries to\nexplore the common preventable health and social problems encountered by elderly in Shinyanga\nRegion in northern part of Tanzania. Methods: Across sectional community based study of 465\nsubjects randomly selected was done in three wards of Kahama District. The district was selected\nrandomly out of 8 districts of Shinyanga Region, structured questionnaires with both closed and\nopened endower used; the information was collected from house to house and other information\ncollected from health facilities within the wards as every ward had one public health facility; subjects\n(respondents) were obtained using purposive sampling technique aiming at elderly with 60\nyears of age and above. Results: Kahama district has a population of approximately 36,014 of\nwhich 1500 (4%) are in the elderly age group of 60 years and above. The study population was\n465 which is 30% (465/1500) of the geriatric population of Kahama. Among this group 5% were\nfemale while 41% were male and 53% (248/465) were married. 64% (297/465) were taking care of themselves, 32% (150/465) cared by relatives and 4% (18/465) cared by the community.\nAmong the respondents, 40% (185/465) were affected by HIV/AIDs in one way or another either\nliving with orphans whose parents died of HIV/AIDS or asking care of the infected patients within\nthe family. It was also found that 73% of the geriatrics were not exempted from medical treatment\nfees so they had to pay for their medical care. However, only 32% were aware of getting free\ntreatment and 61% of the study populations were not satisfied with the medical care provided at\nthe public health facilities. The common diseases affecting this age group are: Eye problem 59%\n(273/465); Arthritis 52% (241/465); Dental problems 27% (124/465); Hypertension 23%\n(107/465); Backache 22% (105/465); Malaria 28% (132/465); Hearing problems 26% (121/645);\nUrinary tract Infection 35% (165/465); Depression 8% (36/465). Dementia was also a problem\nthough we had no tools to confirm the diagnosis; some of the geriatrics had more than two diseases.\nConclusion: The majority of the elderly age group in Kahama District are not aware of their\nrights that they deserve free treatment according to Tanzania policy, furthermore for assessment\nand screening of health problems. A majority of the elderly die prematurely due to preventable\ndiseases and more than half of the diseases affecting geriatrics are preventable.
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