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GENDER DIFFERENCE IN HEALTH AND ITS DETERMINANTS IN THE OLD-AGED POPULATION IN INDIA

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 June 2009

BIPLAB DHAK
BIPLAB DHAK
Affiliation:
Institute for Social and Economic Change, Bangalore, India
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Summary

This paper examines the gender differential in health and its socioeconomic and demographic determinants in the old-age population of India based on the National Sample Survey 60th round data collected in 2004. As in developed countries, older women in India report poorer self-reported health and experience greater immobility compared with men. Stepwise logistic regression analysis shows that the gender differential in health is linked to various socioeconomic and demographic variables and that the gender gap could be narrowed with appropriate policy intervention. Specifically, paying special attention towards improving the socioeconomic status of widowed/separated women could attenuate a substantial portion of the observed gender gap in the health of the old-age population.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Biosocial Science , Volume 41 , Issue 5 , September 2009 , pp. 625 - 643
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

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