[An epidemiology study on common diseases among the elderly in Beijing]

In order to study the status and characteristics of some common diseases of elderly which seriously influence the Quality of Life of the elderly, 1434 elderly over 60 years old in the urban and rural areas of Beijing were investigated with a random sampling method. The results showed that prostate hyperplasia, deafness, cataract, osteoarthropathy, bone fracture and constipation among the elderly were 61.4%, 53.9%, 46.4%, 24.4%, 14.2% and 18.2% in the urban areas, and 65.7%, 64.7%, 44.4%, 14.9%, 9.1% and 23.0% in the rural areas respectively. The prevalence rates of osteoarthropathy (P < 0.01) and bone fracture (P < 0.01) were higher in the urban areas than in the rural areas (P < 0.01). In contrast, the prevalence rates of deafness (P < 0.01) and constipation (P < 0.05) of the elderly were higher in the rural than those in the urban. The prevalence rates of above diseases were lower when selfreporting than that by the medical examination, and also lower in the rural than in the urban (P < 0.01). Hence, the prevention and treatment of the common diseases of elderly should be strengthened, especially in the rural areas.