A Study to Assess the Level of Anxiety among Geriatrics in Selected Villages at Puducherry

Abstract

Anxiety was the body response to panic and agony. People with anxiety will have difficulty in performing their daily activities. Some of the symptoms of anxiety are difficulty in breathing, sweating, nausea, digestion problems and obsessive thoughts. Anxiety affects the elder people more than depression. Anxiety increases the likelihood for disability, decrease in cognition, socialization and have poor quality of life. World health organization estimated that in India 7.5% of people are suffering from mental illness and 38 million are suffering from anxiety disorders. The descriptive survey approach was used in this study. Purposive sampling technique was used for the selection of subjects. We observed that except educational status other variables such as age, income, gender, religion, occupational status and support of the family were non-significant. It shows that majority of the subjects had mild level of anxiety.