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Life Style and Economic Correlates of Self-Rated Health Among Elderly in Rural India: Evidence from SAGE

Author Affiliations

  • 1International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS), Mumbai, INDIA
  • 2 Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai, INDIA

Int. Res. J. Social Sci., Volume 4, Issue (6), Pages 72-76, June,14 (2015)

Abstract

Population ageing is the consequence of demographic transition, which affects the age structure of the world’s population drastically. The perceived health status of elderly is an important measure for making better plan and policies related to health. The self-rated health not only states the determinants of health status, but also related to the acceptance of health-promoting behaviour. The purpose of the present study is to investigate the influence that socioeconomic determinants, economic hardship and life style factors have on self-rated health among elderly persons (60 years and older) living in the rural India. The present study has utilized the Study on Global Ageing and Adult Health (SAGE-2007) data for analysis, which was conducted with the collaboration of IIPS and WHO. A total of 11,230 respondents were interviewed in the survey out of which 3618 were elderly (60+) out of which 2702 elderly were used with the help of SPSS and STATA 13 software. The results depicts that bad self-rated health is more prevalent among oldest-old, female, Muslim, scheduled tribe, elderly suffering from economic hardship and ever used but not currently using tobacco and alcohol. The old-old, oldest-old and Muslim are more likely to have bad self-rated health whereas rural elderly with less than primary education is less likely to have bad self-rated health. Elderly not suffering from economic hardship are less likely to have bad self-rated health. The likelihood of having bad self rated health is more among elderly who ever used but not currently using tobacco and similarly in case of alcohol than their counterpart of those who ever used and currently using. The present study findings will be useful for policy makers and researchers who are working in the field of health and ageing in India.

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