A Public Health Intervention for Homoeopathy in Geriatric Healthcare

Background: India has about 112 million elderly people with 71% of them living in rural areas.The elderly suffer from multiple physical, social, psychological, and economic problems with unmet needs in all domains of health.The objective is to screen the elderly population in rural areas for their psycho-socio-medical need using a questionnaire, to identify prevalent diseases, and to provide homoeopathic treatment.Materials and methods: A door-to-door survey was undertaken in villages having a predominant scheduled caste population for screening of the elderly population for their psychosocial need using a predefined questionnaire and sensitizing community living elderly at the doorstep using a preidentified integrated care tool-brief (ICT-BRIEF) questionnaire.The elderly suffering from any disease and intended to take homoeopathic treatment were referred to geriatric outreach clinics conducted in villages weekly.The elderly reporting was assessed for their daily activities using the Katz index and followed up fortnightly for 6 months.Results: A total of 4,123 elderly individuals were screened for their psycho-socio-medical needs, and 929 cases were treated in the outpatient department (OPD).Of these, 361 patients completed follow-up visits lasting more than 1 month.The musculoskeletal system was identified as the most commonly affected, with Rhus toxicodendron and Bryonia alba being the most effective homoeopathic remedies. Conclusion:The findings from this program highlight the potential of homoeopathy as a complementary treatment modality in geriatric care.Future research should focus on randomized controlled trials (RCTs) to validate these findings, particularly for conditions like multimorbidity and musculoskeletal disorders.