A statistical analysis of various factors associated with selected health problems among older adults in India

The paper attempts at developing a framework for understanding socioeconomic correlates of selected chronic diseases and impairments among older adults of India. Subsequently, logit regression models are utilized to explain how various socioeconomic, cultural, demographic and life style factors are associated with selected health problems among the older adults. The selected chronic diseases are chronic cough, diabetes, heart disease, urinary problems, hypertension, problem in joints and limbs and piles. The selected disabilities arise in respect of vision, hearing, locomotion, amnesia and speech. The self reported cases appearing in the 52nd round data of the National Sample Survey data have been made use of for this purpose. It has been found that the factors associated with the likelihood of having a health problem are dependent on the type of the health problem. Financial dependency, household economic status, education and lifestyle factors are found to be significant socioeconomic predictors of health at older ages.