title: Age and Socioeconomic Gradients of Health of Indian Adults: An Assessment of Self-Reported and Biological Measures of Health.
abstract: This paper describes overall socioeconomic gradients and the age patterns of socioeconomic gradients of health of Indian adults for multiple health indicators encompassing the multiple aspects of health. Cross-sectional data on 11,230 Indians aged 18 years and older from the WHO-SAGE India Wave 1, 2007 were analyzed. Multivariate logit models were estimated to examine effects of socioeconomic status (education and household wealth) and age on four health domains: self-rated health, self-reported functioning, chronic diseases, and biological health measures. Results show that socioeconomic status (SES) was negatively associated with prevalence of each health measure but with considerable heterogeneity across age groups. Results for hypertension and COPD were inconclusive. SES effects are significant while adjusting for background characteristics and health risk factors. The age patterns of SES gradient of health depict divergence with age, however, no conclusive age pattern emerged for biological markers. Overall, results in this paper dispelled the conclusion of negative SES-health association found in some previous Indian studies and reinforced the hypothesis of positive association of SES with health for Indian adults. Higher prevalence of negative health outcomes and SES disparities of health outcomes among older age-groups highlight need for inclusive and focused health care interventions for older adults across socioeconomic spectrum.
authors.affiliation: International Institute for Population Sciences, Mumbai, India.
authors.forename: Perianayagam
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Arokiasamy
authors.affiliation: International Institute for Population Sciences, Mumbai, India. uttamacharya.iips@gmail.com.
authors.lastname: Uttamacharya
authors.affiliation: World Health Organization's SAGE and Research Centre on Gender, Health and Ageing, University of Newcastle, Newcastle, NSW, Australia.
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Kowal
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Statistics and Information Systems, World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Somnath
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Chatterji
mesh_terms: D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002908:Chronic Disease / Q000208:ethnology*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005191:Family Characteristics; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D054624:Health Status Disparities; D006801:Humans; D007194:India / Q000453:epidemiology; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015995:Prevalence; D012307:Risk Factors; D057566:Self Report; D012923:Social Class; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Biomarkers; Chronic disease; Functional health; Self-rated health; Socioeconomic gradients; Socioeconomic status