The effect of income, family and socio‐religious affiliations on self‐rated health of the aged in India

Abstract

This research sought to examine whether economic dependence, immediate family characteristics and socio‐religious affiliation predict the health status of the elderly in India. Towards this objective, Government of India's unit‐level Round 71 NSSO data containing responses from more than 27,245 persons aged above 60 were employed. We used ordered logistic regression owing to the categorical and ordinal nature of the output variable. Our findings suggest a direct relationship between income and healthy ageing. Conversely, financial dependence negatively affects health status. With respect to immediate family characteristics, loss of spouse negatively influences health status, while presence of children and presence of at least a son (as opposed to none) positively influence the health status of the Indian elderly. While the increment in the number of sons has no effect, an increase in the number of daughters has a negative influence on elderly health status. Finally, our findings in regards to socio‐religious affiliations suggest that Buddhist elderly report positive and Muslim elderly report negative health status, in comparison with other religions. Furthermore, elderly persons classified as scheduled tribes report positive and those classified as scheduled castes report negative health status, as compared to other social groups. Policy and research implications are discussed. Limitations are acknowledged.