nagpur an european study published in the lancet healthy longevity journal suggests that elders who live in multigenerational homes are at higher mortality risk for covid19 though the observational study was based in sweden its findings raise a red flag for india where its common to have joint families spanning as many as three generations residing under the same roofthe observational study which focused on people aged 70 and above found that the risk of death is higher when they come in close contact with younger people within the homethe highest mortality was found in homes with at least one person older than 66 years of age and one child younger than 16 years but after age adjustment in terms of this particular study it was found that its not just the younger ones who could put seniors at risk they found a 60 increase in deaths when elders resided with someone aged 66 years and belowmaria branden of linkping university sweden and lead author of the study said elderly people are more at risk of dying from covid19 if they live in a care home or with family members who are of working ageanother key finding of the study which is very relevant in indian context is densely populated areas the study found an almost 3 times increase in death rate when comparing densely and sparsely populated areas neighbourhoods having population of 5000 sq km had a death rate of 39 whereas those having just 150sq km saw a mortality rate of 11the study which was conducted between march and may also talks about preventive steps to be taken the key to protecting the elderly lies in arresting community spread the study suggests branden adds that neighbourhood transmission is an important consideration for covid19 even if older people can and do selfisolate thats because many of them will come into contact with working age people at some point she addscommenting on the study dr alison roxby of the university of washington school of medicine usa said householdlevel preventive measures will be needed to protect older adults as the pandemic continues vaccines and monoclonal antibodies are promising tools that may reduce the risk of infection and spread older adults and their support networks should be among the earliest recipients once availablesenior medical practitioner dr prashant jagtap said care has to be taken when it comes to source of infection outside infection can come from maids drivers or the younger kids who are moving out in crowded areas in many cases which we saw the younger ones were asymptomatic carriers and it came to the fore only when elders got infected he said