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Paper short abstract:

Elderly tribal men suffer from various health problems. Family members facilitate their medicare, Still there is an urgent need to evolve mechanism to provide proper medical attendance to old men not being attended.

Paper long abstract:

Tribal men confront multiple health problems during old-age. Growing individualism, breaking of joint families and host of other reasons have made it a daunting task to give them care during twilight of their life. An empirical study was conducted with the objectives to know minor and major health problems of elderly men, care &response of family members during illness and reaction of sick old men for not getting sufficient medicare. Information was elicited from 450 elderly men inhabiting rural and urban areas in Western region in India with the help of an interview schedule. Majority of the informants had joint pain, diabetes, high blood pressure and teeth problem. Significant proportion of respondents suffered from serious ailments- blindness, cancer and dementia but majority of them were still not full blown cases. Family members are the main care givers and attend the sick subjects immediately in majority cases. Medical attendance is delayed either unnecessarily or due to indifferent attitude of care providers or because of compelling reasons- occupation commitments and educational pursuits. Majority of such informants take self help, call ambulance and get medication or even hospitalization. It calls for need ensuring access to healthcare, immediate attention to health problems and healthy life style of the men in their sun set years at the place of their residence.