KUMJ | VOL. 22 | NO. 4 | ISSUE 88 | OCTOBER. - DECEMBER. 2024
Intrinsic Capacity of Older People in Panchkhal Municipality of Nepal: A cross-sectional study
Shrestha L, Neupane R, Paudel L, Manandhar N
Abstract: Background
With the global trend of rising ageing population, health care to the elderly needs
special focus as absence of disease merely does not mean that older people are
healthy and have full functional ability. So, WHO introduced intrinsic capacity to
define healthy ageing.
Objective
To find the prevalence of decline in intrinsic capacity in older people of Panchkhal
Municipality.
Method
A community based cross-sectional observational study was conducted in 5 simple
randomly selected wards of Panchkhal Municipality of Nepal. Total sample sizes of
848 data were collected using proportionate convenience sampling. Data collection
techniques were interview with observation using predesigned proforma containing
WHO (Integrated Care for Older People-ICOPE) tool.
Result
The prevalence of decline in intrinsic capacity of older people in Panchkhal
Municipality was 86.9%. The decline in individual domains was visual acuity 58.0 %
followed by cognition 48.9%, locomotion 48.8%, hearing ability 38.6%, vitality 38.0%
and psychology 28.5%. The mean age was 71.18 ±8.769 years (60-100). The majority
of older people were male 55.8%, Hindu 91.7%, had joint family 77.7% and illiterate
60.3%. There was significant moderate positive correlation of age with decline
in locomotion (r=0.469, p=0.029), hearing ability (r=0.312, p=0.032), cognitive
ability(r=0.209, p=0.034) and low negative correlation of age with vitality (r=-0.161,
p=0.035), psychology (r=-0.130, p=0.034),visual acuity (r=-0.126, p=0.034).
Conclusion
There was a high prevalence of decline in intrinsic capacity of the older people
from Panchkhal Municipality. Special and focused care is required for older people
from the government along with implementation of WHO-Integrated Care for Older
People-ICOPEtool in every healthcare setting to promote healthy ageing.
Keyword : Capacity, Integrated care for older people (ICOPE), Intrinsic, Nepal
