PAKISTAN: More Elderly Have Urinary Problems

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (The Post), November 2, 2007: Life expectancy in Pakistan might be increasing, leaving many jubilant to live longer. But added years may not be the healthiest. The Departments of Urology at the various hospitals of Rawalpindi mainly dealing with patients above the age group of 50-60 years, find that the number of patients visiting them has not only increased manifold but the years ahead may compound the problems related to elderly. "The number of patients coming to us has simply doubled in the last several years," a friend of mine working at one of the city hospitals as a lady doctor (urologist) told me very recently. He culled out the figures to divulge how the total load of patients coming to the department with urinary complications including partial or no passing of urine, prostrate cancer and kidney and bladder problems has risen to as compared to a decade ago. Looking at a direct correlation between the patients visiting his department and the population of the senior citizens, the total population of the persons above the age of 60 years, at present, is 6 per cent in Pakistan. The percentage of elderly is going to rise to 9 per cent by 2012. This means that the sheer increase in the patient load on the departments mainly catering to diseases affecting the people above the age group of 50 to 60 years will increase in the coming years. "Our department will certainly get to see more patients, a urologist told me. The patients visiting the department remain within the age group of 50 to 60 years with a minimal percentage of younger patients. Having come up with the thorough profile of the patients who visited the department in the OPDs and the emergency, the department has estimated that as many as 38 per cent of the patients who came to the department last year suffered from genitourinary cancer followed by 28 per cent of them who suffered from urine stone diseases. Prostrate cancer and complications affected 13.75 per cent of them. The department with predominantly male patient load also had little more than 2 per cent female patients with urinary problems. By Fatima Qazalbaash ©Copy Rights Reserved