Is health status of elderly worsening in India:A comparison of successive rounds of National Sample Survey data

Zakir Husain and Saswata Ghosh

MPRA Paper from University Library of Munich, Germany

Abstract: The increasing graying of India’s population raises concerns about the welfare and health status of the aged. One important source of information of health status of the elderly is the National Sample Survey Rounds on Morbidity and Health Care Expenditure. Using unit level data for 1995-96 and 2004 this paper has examined changes in reported health status of elderly in India and analyzed their relationship with living arrangements and extent of economic dependency. It appears that even after controlling for factors like caste, education, age, economic status and place of residence, there has been deterioration in self-perceived current health status of elderly. This paper argues that, although there have been changes in the economic condition and traditional living arrangements - with a decline in co-residential arrangements - this is not enough to explain the decline in reported health status and calls for a closer look at narratives of neglect being voiced in developing countries.

Keywords: economic independence; co-residence; elderly; health status; ordered logit model; India (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C35 J14 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010-09-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-age, nep-dcm and nep-hea
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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