Background Morbidity among elderly people has an important influence on their physical functioning and psychological well-being. Evaluation of the morbidity profile and its determinants, which have implications for elderly people, are not available. The objective of this study is to assess morbidity, co-morbidity, and patterns of treatment seeking, and to determine relationship of morbidity with disability, psychological distress, and socio-demographic variables among the elderly population in northern India. Methods A cross-sectional survey of 200 subjects over 60 years old (100 each from the urban population of Chandigarh City and the rural population of Haryana State of India) was carried out using a cluster sampling technique. The study period was July 1999–April 2000. Various socio-demographic characteristics were recorded at baseline. A clinical diagnosis was made by a physician based on reported illness, clinical examination, and cross-checking of medical records and medications held by the subjects. Psychological distress and disability was assessed using the PGI-Health Questionnaire-N-1 and the Rapid Disability Rating Scale-2, respectively. ANOVA, Kruskal–Wallis H test, correlation coefficient, and multivariate analysis were used to assess the relationship and association of morbidity with other variables. Results Of the total sample, 88.9% reported illness based on their perception, and of these 43.5% were seeking treatment and actually taking medicines, and 42.5% were diagnosed as having 4–6 morbidities. The mean number of morbidities among elderly people was 6.1 (SD 2.9). A total of 87.5% had minimal to severe disabilities and 66% of elderly people were distressed physically, psychologically, or both. The most prevalent morbidity was anaemia, followed by dental problems, hypertension, chronic obstructive airway disease (COAD), cataract, and osteoarthritis. Morbidities like asthma, COAD, hypertension, osteoarthritis, gastrointestinal disorders, anaemia, and eye and neurological problems were significantly associated with disability and distress. Higher number of morbidities was associated with greater disability and distress. In univariate analysis, socio-demographic variables like age, locality, caste, education, occupation, and income were important determinants of morbidity. Multivariate analysis was undertaken to find out the independent relationship of socio-demographic variables with morbidity. Morbidity was significantly associated with age (b value 0.06, 95% CI: 0.01, 0.12), sex (b value 1.03, 95% CI: 0.02, 2.05), and occupation (b value 0.20, 95% CI: 0.07, 0.33). Conclusions A high mean number of morbidities (6.1, SD 2.9) was observed. Elderly subjects with higher morbidity had increasing disability and distress. Age, sex, and occupation were important determinants of morbidity. Assessment of the morbidity profile and its determinants will help in the application of interventions, both medical and social, to improve the health status and thus the quality of life of the elderly in Northern India.

In real-life applications of wireless sensor networks (WSNs), optimization of the network operation is required to extend its lifetime. A framework is proposed that enables practical development of centralized cluster-based protocols supported by optimization methods for the WSNs. Based on this framework, a protocol using harmony search algorithm (HSA), a music-based meta-heuristic optimization method, is designed and implemented in real time for the WSNs. It is expected to minimize the intra-cluster distances between the cluster members and their cluster heads (CHs) and optimize the energy distribution of the WSNs. The study of HSA cluster-based protocol is carried out in a real case where the WSNs equipped with the proposed protocol are deployed in an indoor environment to monitor the ambient temperature for fire detection. A comparison is made with the well-known cluster-based protocols developed for WSNs such as low-energy adaptive clustering hierarchy-centralized (LEACH-C) and a cluster-based protocol using Fuzzy C-Means (FCM) clustering algorithm. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed protocol using HSA can be realized in centralized cluster-based WSNs for safety and surveillance applications in building environments. From the obtained experimental test results, it can be seen that the WSNs lifetime has been extended using the proposed HSA protocol in comparison with that of LEACH-C and FCM protocols.