Are Informal Older Workers Utilizing Less Healthcare Services? Evidence from the Longitudinal Ageing Study in India, Wave-1

Abstract

AbstractIndia’s informal sector employs many workers without social security benefits, such as pension support and health insurance. Many older workers continue to work in this sector beyond the retirement age (60 + years) due to financial and health needs. Given the vulnerable position of informal older workers in terms of their social and economic stature, as well as the increasing burden of non-communicable diseases, it becomes important to study healthcare utilization. The present research aims to investigate variations in healthcare visits by type of work in India for older workers. The first wave of LASI (2017-18) data has been used in this study. The overall healthcare visits, consisting of inpatient and outpatient care, are considered as the outcome variable for the analysis. Zero-inflated Poisson regression is applied to study the relationship between type of work and healthcare visits while controlling for other covariates. The results of zero-inflated Poisson regression shows that informal workers have fewer healthcare visits than formal workers (P < 0.01). However, the relationship between type of work and healthcare visits is influenced by health conditions, including chronic health conditions (CHC), depression as well as both CHC and depression. Informal workers with depression visit 0.892 times less (P < 0.05) than formal workers with depression. Informal workers with CHC and depression visit 0.847 times less (P < 0.0001) than formal workers with CHC and depression. The present study underscores the importance of proper economic support and healthcare provision to financially encourage older workers belonging to poor social-economic status to seek for healthcare services.