Table 2.

Health and Life style characteristics of elderly in Sodo Zuriya districts, Wolaita zone, southern Ethiopia 2017 (n = 554)

Variable	Category	n	%
Currently smoking	Yes	39	7.0
	No	515	93.0
Smoke daily(n = 39)	Yes	31	79.4
	No	8	20.6
Drink alcohol currently	Yes	98	17.7
	No	456	82.3
Frequency of alcohol use	Daily	27	27.5
	5–6 days per week	22	22.4
	1–4 days per week	16	16.3
	1–3 days per month	25	25.5
	Once per month	8	8.2
Illness in the last three months	Yes	273	49.3
	No	281	50.7
Frequent disease occurred	Joint pain	167	30.1
	Hypertension	40	7.2
	Diabetes mellitus	19	3.4
	Othersa	47	8.5
Decline in food intake	Yes	183	33.0
	No	371	67.0
Reason for decline	Digestive problem	51	27.7
	Loss of appetite	86	47.0
	Chewing problem	28	15.3
	Loss of smell and taste	18	9.8
Take medication currently	Yes	118	21.3
	No	436	78.8
Reason for loneliness	Loss of family member	56	10.1
	Social isolation	27	4.9
	Otherb	19	3.4

^a Acute febrile illness, skin diseases, ^b loss of assets