On ageing, health and poverty in rural India

Pandey, Manoj K. (2009): On ageing, health and poverty in rural India.

Abstract

In this paper, the trend and determinants of health and poverty among the elderly in rural India is analysed. Two rounds of National Sample Survey (NSS) data for the year 1995-96 and 2004 are employed. The analysis has been done with independent and pooled datasets. Our analysis shows that levels of consumption poverty have declined marginally between 1995-96 and 2004 while increased proportion of elderly with poor health status is continued. Results suggest that poverty is one of the key determinants of health among elderly in rural India.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: health; poverty; elderly
• Subjects: J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J1 - Demographic Economics > J14 - Economics of the Elderly ; Economics of the Handicapped ; Non-Labor Market Discrimination; I - Health, Education, and Welfare > I1 - Health > I12 - Health Behavior; I - Health, Education, and Welfare > I3 - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty > I32 - Measurement and Analysis of Poverty

References

Alam, M. (2000): Ageing in Indian Society: A Country Profile, Bold, 10(3): 5-22.

Alam, M. (2008): Ageing, Socio-economic Disparities and Health Outcomes: Some Evidence from Rural India, Working Paper Series No. E/290/2008, Institute of Economic Growth, University of Delhi Enclave, North Campus, Delhi-110007, India.

Amemiya, T (1981): ‘Quantitative Response Models: A Survey’, Journal of Economic Literature, Vol. 19, Pp. 1483-1536.

Balasubramanian, A. (2007): Health Status of the Elderly in India, in H. S. Rout and P.K. Panda, (Eds.), Health Economics in India, New Century Publications (India) New Delhi, 81-111.

Blundell, R. (1995): Income, Expenditure and Living Standards of UK Households, Fiscal Studies, 16(3): 40-54.

Case, A.C. and A. Deaton (2003): Broken Down by Work and Sex: How Our Health Declines, NBER working paper no. 9821, available from http://www.nber.org/ papers/ w9821. Last accessed on November 3, 2008.

Chakraborty, Satyajit (2005): Health Seeking Behavior of Aged Population of a Rural Block in West Bengal, Working Paper No. 8, Achuta Menon Center for Health Science Studies, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala.

Chanana, H.B. and P.P. Talwar (1987): Aging in India: Its Socio-Economic and Health Implications, Asia Pacific Population Journal, 2(3): 23-38.

Connelly, J.E., J.T. Philbrick, R.G. Smith, D.L. Kaiser and A. Wymer (1989): Health Perceptions of Primary Care Patients and the Influence on Health Care Utilization, Medical Care, 27: S99-S109.

Darshan Sailesh, M.L. Sharma and S.P. Singh (1987): Health Needs of Senior Citizens, in M.L. Sharma and T.M. Dak, (Eds.), Aging in India, Ajanta publications (India) New Delhi, 207-13.

Deaton, A. (1997): The Analysis of Household Surveys: A Micro econometric Approach to Development Policy, World Bank, Washington DC.

Deaton, A. and C. Paxson (1995): Measuring Poverty among the Elderly, NBER Working Paper, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

Deaton, A.S. and C. H. Paxson (1998): Aging and Inequality in Income and Health, American Economic Review, Papers and Proceedings, 88: 248–253.

Dreze, J. and P.V.Srinivasan(1997): Widowhood and poverty in rural India: Some inferences from household survey data, Journal of Development Economics, Vol. 54, 217-234.

Ettner, S.L. (1996): New Evidence on the Relationship between Income and Health, Journal of Health Economics, 15: 67–85.

Foster, J., J. Greer, and E. Thorbecke (1984): A Class of Decomposable Poverty Measures, Econometrica, 52:761-766.

Gaiha, R. and K. Imai (2004): Vulnerability, Persistence of Poverty and Shocks-Estimates for Semi-Arid Rural India, Oxford Development Studies, 32(2): 261-281.

Gerdtham, U.-G., M. Johannesson, L. Lundberg and D. Isacson (1999): The Demand for Health: Results from New Measures of Health Capital, European Journal of Political Economy, 15: 501–521

Gerdtham, Ulf and M. Johannesson (1999): New Estimates of the Demand for Health: Results based on a Categorical Health Measures and Swedish Micro Data, Social Science and Medicine, 49: 1325-1332.

Greene, W H (2003): Econometric Analysis, 5th Edition, Delhi, Pearson Education, India.

Grossman, M. (1972): On the Concept of Health Capital and the Demand for Health, Journal of Political Economy, 80: 223-255.

Grossman, M. (2000): The Human Capital Model, in Culyer, A.J. and J.P.Newhouse, (Eds.), Handbook of Health Economics, Elsevier Amsterdam, 1A: 347-408.

Gupta, I. and D. Sankar (2001): Health of the Elderly in India: A Multivariate Analysis, Discussion Paper Series No. 46, Institute of Economic Growth, University Enclave, Delhi.

Gupta, I., P. Dasgupta and M. Sawhney (2001): Health of the Elderly in India: Some Aspects of Vulnerability, BOLD, Quarterly Journal of the International Institute on Ageing, United Nations - Malta, 11(3) May, 2001.

Gupta, P. and A.K. Vohra (1987): Pattern of Psychiatric Morbidity in the Aged, in M.L. Sharma and T.M. Dak, (Eds.), Aging in India, Ajanta Publications (India), New Delhi, 214-21.

Himanshu (2007): Recent Trends in Poverty and Inequality: Some Preliminary Results, Economic and Political Weekly ,February 10, 2007, 497-508.

Idler, E.L. and S.V. Kasl (1995): Self-Rating of Health: Do They Also Predict Change in Functional Ability?, Journal of Gerontology, 50(6): S344-53.

Idler, E.L. and Y. Benyamini (1997): Self-Rated Health and Mortality: A Review of Twenty Seven Community Studies, Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 38: 21-37.

Irudaya Rajan, S. (2008): Social Security for the Elderly: Experiences from South Asia, (ed.), Routledge: Taylor and Fransis Group: London, New York, New Delhi.

Jalan, J. and M. Ravallion (2001): Household income dynamics in Rural China, Policy Research Working Papers Series, No. 2706. The World Bank.

Joseph, James (1991): Aged in India: Problems and Personality, Chugh Publications, Allahabad.

Jylha, M., J.M. Guralnik, L. Ferruci, J. Jokela, and E. Heikkinen (1998): Is Self-Rated Health Comparable across Cultures and Gender?, Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences, 53 B: 144-152.

Kennedy, B.P., I. Kawachi, R. Glass and D. Prothrow-Stith (1998): Income Distribution, Socio-Economic Status, and Self Rated Health in the United States: Multilevel Analysis, British Medical Journal, 317:917–921.

Kumar P.V. (1999): Elderly Women in Rural India: Need for Policy Intervention, Help Age India, 5(3): 27-30.

Long, J. S. (1997): Regression Models for Categorical and Limited Dependent Variables, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

McCallum, J., B. Shadbolt and D. Wang (1994): Self-Rated Health and Survival: a 7-year Follow-Up Study of Australian Elderly, American Journal of Public Health, 847:1100-1105.

Nandal, D.S., R.S. Khatri and R.S. Kadian (1987): Aging Problems in the Structural Context, in M.L. Sharma and T.M. Dak, (Eds.), Aging in India, Ajanta Publications (India), New Delhi, 106-16.

NSSO (1998): The aged in India: A Socio-Economic Profile, National Sample Survey Organization, 52nd round, Report No. 446 (52/25.0/3), Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, Government of India.

NSSO (2006): Morbidity, Health Care and the Condition of the aged, ational Sample Survey Organization, 60th round, Report No. 507(60/25.0/1), Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, Government of India.

Okun, M.A., W.A. Stock, M.J. Haring and R.A. Witter (1984): Health and Subjective Wellbeing: A Meta-Analysis, International Journal of Aging and Human Development, 192:111-132.

Ory, Marcia G. and K. Bond (1989): Introduction: Health Care for an Ageing Society, in Marcia G. Ory and Kathleen Bond, (Eds.), Ageing and Health Care: Social Science and Policy Perspectives, Routledge, London.

Pal, S. and R. Palacios (2008): Understanding Poverty among the Elderly in India: Implications for Social Pension Policy, IZA Discussion Paper No. 3431, April, 2008.

Pandey (2009): Poverty and Disability among Indian Elderly: Evidence from Household Survey, ASARC Working Paper 2009/09.

Rahman, M. Omar and Arthur J. Barsky (2003):Self-Reported Health Among Older Bangladeshis: How Good a Health Indicator Is It?, The Gerontologist, 43:856-863.

Reddy, K.N. (1996): Social Security for Elderly in India: Need for Reform, Research and Development Journal, Help Age India: 3(1).

Reddy, P.H. (1996): The Health of Aged in India, Health Transition Review, Supplement, 6: 233-244.

Registrar General of India (1999): Ageing Population of India: An Analysis of the 1991 Census Data, Census of India 1991, New Delhi.

Saunders, P. (1996): Income, Health and Happiness, The Australian Economic Review, 353-366.

Schofield, Deborah (1996): The Impact of Employment and Hours of Work on Health Status and Health Service Usage, NATSEM Discussion Paper No. 11, Canberra, March.

Shah, V.P. (1993): The Elderly in Gujarat, Department of Sociology, Gujarat University, Ahmedabad (Mimeographed).

Smith, J.P. (1999): Health Bodies and Thick Wallets: the Dual Relation between Health and Economic Status, Journal of Economic Perspectives, 13: 145-166.

United Nations (2005): World Population Prospects: The 2004, Revision, Vol. I, Comprehensive Tables, and Vol. II, Sex and Age Distribution of the World Population, Sales No. E.05.XIII.5 and E.05.XIII.6.

Wagstaff, A. and E. van Doorslair (1994): Measuring Inequalities in Health in the Presence of Multiple Category Morbidity Indicators, Health Economics, 3: 281-291.