Ageing, Uncertainty and Social Capital: An Institutional Study of Older Adults in Uttar Pradesh, India

To successfully respond to the increasing wellbeing needs of older people, it is imperative to have an in-depth understanding of their health status, quality of life (QoL), and related components. This paper, using the data from the WAVE I of the WHO-SAGE India, 2007, describe the patterns of frailty and QoL among older adults in India and examines their associations with socio-economic and demographic factors. To understand the pattern of frailty and QoL, and to understand associated factors. We use the method of deficit accumulation to construct a frailty index using 40 variables and QoL was assessed using the WHOQ0L-BRIEF instrument. This study included a total of 6554 older adults aged 50 + years. Uttar Pradesh had the highest (18%) percentage of people without frailty (score 70). Frailty increased and QoL decreased in higher age groups for all the states, and was more frequent in women. Lower levels of frailty and high QoL were observed at higher levels of education and wealth. Education, residence, and wealth were protective factors for frailty in West Bengal, whereas only education and wealth were protective in Uttar Pradesh. Growing frailty in the low-income setting is challenging and raises public health concerns. Poor QoL and poor health status in older people were significantly associated with marital status, sex, age, wealth, and specific levels of education. The results indicate that lower levels of frailty and higher QoL can be achieved for older people, and the study highlights the need for targeted preventive approaches and support programs.

Objectives: This study derives a composite frailty index for adults aged 50 and above in India, examines the distribution of frailty conditions across socioeconomic and demographic strata, and estimates the independent effects of background characteristics on frailty using multivariate analysis. Study Design: Cross-sectional secondary analysis of a nationally representative household survey. The cross-sectional design provides a baseline prevalence estimate but does not permit causal inference; findings should be interpreted accordingly. Place and Duration of Study: Six states of India (Assam, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal), using WHO Study on Global Ageing and Adult Health (SAGE) India Wave 1, 2007. These six states were selected by WHO-SAGE to represent India's geographic, linguistic, and socioeconomic diversity, though they do not constitute a nationally representative sample in the strict probability sense. Methodology: Data from 6,560 respondents aged 50 and above were analysed. A modified frailty index comprising seven deficit indicators — low grip strength, slowness, low body mass index, low physical activity, cognitive limitation, psychological limitation, and exhaustion — was constructed. This index adapts the Fried phenotype to SAGE India's measurement instruments; key differences from the standard Fried criteria are explicitly acknowledged in the methodology. Participants were classified as robust (0 deficits), pre-frail (1–2), intermediate frail (3–4), or frail (5–7). Multinomial logistic regression was used to estimate socioeconomic determinants of frailty. Results: Frailty prevalence was 15.5% overall, rising sharply with age from 7.1% in the 50–59 group to 50.8% in those aged 80 and above. Female sex, no formal education, low wealth, rural residence, and scheduled caste/tribe status were consistently associated with higher frailty burden. Multinomial logistic regression confirmed that advanced age, low education, and low wealth quintile were the strongest predictors of frailty, with statistically significant odds ratios at p < 0.01. Conclusion: Frailty is prevalent and strongly socially patterned among older Indians. These findings call for the integration of frailty screening into India's primary healthcare infrastructure, and for targeted nutritional and physical rehabilitation programmes directed at low-income, low-education older adults in rural settings. Targeted preventive strategies addressing nutritional deficiency, physical deconditioning, and socioeconomic disadvantage are urgently needed to mitigate the growing burden of frailty in India's ageing population.

Cerebral dominance refers to the preferential engagement of one hemisphere of the brain – left or right – in specific cognitive operations. However, modern neuroscience asserts that cognitive functions are not confined to isolated hemispheres but distributed across dynamic neural networks. This study examined hemispheric preference patterns among elderly individuals aged 60 years and above from rural and urban regions of Lucknow district, Uttar Pradesh. Using a descriptive–comparative design, a purposive sample of 120 participants was assessed through the Alert Scale of Cognitive Style (Crane, 1989), adapted and validated in Hindi. Results indicated that rural elderly participants displayed stronger right-hemispheric tendencies, while urban participants leaned toward left-hemispheric preference. The findings are interpreted within contemporary frameworks such as the Hemispheric Asymmetry Reduction in Older Adults model and Scaffolding Theory of Aging and Cognition, highlighting the brain’s adaptive bilateral activation and compensatory mechanisms during aging. Effect size analyses confirmed that observed differences were statistically significant and meaningful. The study underscores the importance of context-sensitive cognitive interventions for elderly populations, reflecting environmental and lifestyle influences on neurocognitive aging.

Background: Due to COVID-19, the lockdown was imposed throughout the nation on 24 march 2020 and COVID-19 is not over yet, cases are still coming. Food insecurity was already a problem but it became even more challenging during the pandemic. Especially rural older adult people have had to deal with the problem of food and health-related issues due to the pandemic. This study aimed to assess food consumption behavior and lifestyle changes among rural older adults before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: A retrospective cross-sectional study has been conducted in rural areas of the Varanasi district, Uttar Pradesh through personal interviews; a multistage random sampling technique was used to select the participants. 450 participants were taken aged 60 and above for final analysis. The McNemar and Wilcoxon sign rank tests were used to examine differences before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, adopting the statistical significance of p<0.05. Results: 66.0% of people faced a shortage of food. 40.9% of people reported that they had reduced their food intake. 27.6% of participants reported a reduction in body weight. There was a significant percentage decrease in consumption of milk products, pulse, and green vegetables (p<0.001), a percentage decrease in initiating and maintaining sleep (p<0.001), and worse health conditions (p<0.001). Conclusions: Food consumption behavior and lifestyles have changed significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic among rural older adults.

Background & objectives:The population of elderly is growing globally and so are the physical illnesses and psychiatric morbidity. This study was planned to assess the prevalence and patterns of psychiatric morbidity amongst rural older adults in Lucknow, north India.Methods:A survey was conducted in subjects aged 60 yr and above to identify the cases of psychiatric morbidity in rural population from randomly selected two revenue blocks of Lucknow district, Uttar Pradesh, India. All subjects were screened through Hindi Mental Status Examination (HMSE) and Survey Psychiatric Assessment Schedule (SPAS) to identify for the suspected cases of cognitive and the psychiatric disorders, respectively. The subjects screened positive on HMSE and SPAS were assessed in detail on Cambridge Mental Disorder of the Elderly Examination-Revised (CAMDEX-R) and Schedule for Clinical Assessment in Neuropsychiatry (SCAN), to diagnose cognitive disorders and psychiatric disorders (other than the cognitive), respectively on the basis of International Classification of Diseases-10 (ICD-10) diagnostic guidelines.Results:The overall prevalence of psychiatric morbidity in rural older adults was found to be 23.7 per cent (95% CI=21.89-25.53). Mood (affective) disorders were the commonest (7.6%, 95% CI=6.51-8.80), followed by mild cognitive impairment (4.6%, 95% CI=3.72-5.53), mental and behavioural disorders due to substance use (4.0%, 95% CI=3.17-4.87) and dementia (2.8%) [Alzheimer's disease (2.4%, 95% CI=1.81-3.16) and vascular (0.4%, 95% CI=0.16-0.73)].Interpretation & conclusions:Overall prevalence of psychiatric morbidity amongst rural elderly in this study was found to be less in comparison to those reported in earlier studies from India. However, prevalence pattern of different disorders was found to be similar. Therefore, it appears that a stringent methodology, refined case criteria for diagnosis and assessment by trained professionals restrict false diagnosis.