Longitudinal Ageing Study of India | 07 Jan 2021

Why in News

Recently, the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare has released the Longitudinal Ageing Study of India (LASI) Wave-1 Report on the virtual platform.

Key Points

• About LASI:
  
  • About:
    
    • It is a full scale national survey of scientific investigation of the health, economic, and social determinants and consequences of population ageing in India. It was commissioned in 2016.
    • It is India’s first and the world’s largest ever survey that provides a longitudinal database for designing policies and programmes for the older population in the broad domains of social, health, and economic well-being.
  • Agencies Involved:
    
    • The National Programme for Health Care of Elderly, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare has undertaken the Longitudinal Ageing Study of India, through International Institute for Population Sciences, (IIPS), Mumbai in collaboration with Harvard School of Public Health, University of Southern California, USA, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and National Institute on Ageing.
  • Coverage:
    
    • The first national wave of the LASI (Wave 1) covered a baseline sample of 72,250 individuals aged 45 and above and their spouses, including elderly persons aged 60 and above and oldest-old persons aged 75 and above from all States and Union Territories (UTs) of India (excluding Sikkim).
  • Methodology:
    
    • It collects detailed data on health and biomarkers together with information on family and social network, income, assets, and consumption.
      
      • In medicine, a biomarker is a measurable indicator of the severity or presence of some disease state. More generally a biomarker is anything that can be used as an indicator of a particular disease state or some other physiological state of an organism.
• Findings:
  
  • In the 2011 census, the 60+ population accounted for 8.6% of India’s population, accounting for 103 million elderly people.
  • Growing at around 3% annually, the number of elderly people will rise to 319 million in 2050.
  • 75% of the elderly people suffer from one or the other chronic disease. 40% of the elderly people have one or the other disability and 20% have issues related to mental health.
  • The self-reported prevalence of diagnosed cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) is 28% among older adults aged 45 and above.
  • The prevalence of multi-morbidity conditions among the elderly age 60 and above is much higher in the states/UTs of Kerala (52%), Chandigarh (41%), Lakshadweep (40%), Goa (39%) and Andaman & Nicobar Islands (38%). The prevalence of single morbidity and multi-morbidity conditions increases with age.
• Significance:
  
  • The evidence from LASI will be used to further strengthen and broaden the scope of the National Programme for Health Care of the Elderly and also help in establishing a range of preventive and health care programmes for the older population and most vulnerable among them.
  • The study holds significance in light of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic with the elderly and persons with comorbidities being at the highest risk of contracting the disease.
    
    • Comorbidity simply means more than one illness or disease occurring in one person at the same time and multimorbidity means more than two illnesses or diseases occurring in the same person at the same time.

Source:PIB