Health Status of Elderly in Rural Maharashtra: Do Socio-Economic Differentials Matter?

Dhananjay Bansod, International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS)
Balram Paswan, International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS)

The main objective of the paper is to investigate the socio economics and demographic influences on health of the elderly. Functional capacity index, mood assessment scale and standard of living index is used for the analysis. The analysis reveals that a higher proportion of elderly living in joint family, with high SLI, and economically independent perceived their health condition to be good than their counterparts. The mood assessment scale shows that 42 percent of the elderly are normal, while one third of elderly found to be mildly depressed and one fourth of elderly found to be in severe depression. The main cause of weak mental health status is financial and health seeking dependency on their children or other family members. Females are found more depressed than males. The empirical information collected from 600 elderly by using semi structured interview schedule in rural Maharashtra