Abstract:

Objective To investigate the prevalence of chronic diseases of elderly people in Nanjing and their health demands. Methods Based on the community health centers in Nanjing, 340 residents from 11 communities were selected by the multi-stage stratified and cluster random sampling method and the questionnaire survey was conducted. The demographic characteristics, prevalence of chronic diseases, and health demands of the elderly people were investigated and analyzed. Results A total of 326 valid questionnaire were returned and the valid return rate was 95.9%. The top three chronic diseases of elderly people in Nanjing were hypertension (57.7%), diabetes (32.8%), and dyslipidemia (25.5%). Top five factors that were unfavorable to health were environmental pollution (64.7%), high medical costs (30.4%), less exercise (24.8%), low income (24.2%), and unreasonable diet (23.9%). The top three items of medical care that were improved most were environmental sanitation of the community (23.2%), regular physical examination and consultation (22.3%), and health education and health life guidance (22.0%). The most dissatisfied item was the medical cost (39.4%). Conclusion Services that are provided by the community health system are unable to meet the health demands of Nanjing residents. The government should strengthen the support of health system, improve unreasonable organization of health facilities, reduce medical costs, adjust forms and contents of health education, and cultivate more distinguished health care personnel to solve the urgent health needs of elderly residents.

Key words: chronic disease, influencing factors, health needs, health care