Perceived Health Status of Elderly in Rural Maharashtra: Do Socio-Economic Differentials Explain Anything?

Dhananjay W. Bansod, International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS)

The ageing of population is of relatively recent origin and still needs further exploration. The present paper focuses on the socio-economic conditions and their effect on heath status of the elderly in rural Maharashtra. Data for the present study was collected from the rural areas of Amravati district using semi structured interview schedule. Issues like self perception of own health is explored under the domain of health status. Further the impact of various socio-economic characteristics on perceived health is discussed in detail. Analysis reveals that a higher proportion of elderly living in joint family system perceived their health condition to be good than those living in nuclear family or living alone. Married elderly are more likely to perceive their health to be good than their counterparts. Elderly of low standard of living index, elderly living alone and economically dependent elderly are more likely to perceive poor health status.