Intrinsic Capacity of Older People in Panchkhal Municipality of Nepal: A cross-sectional study

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.