Urban-rural and gender differential in depressive symptoms among elderly in India
Background: To date, evidence remained inconclusive explaining rural-urban and male-female differential in depression. Unlike other previous research on the association of several risk factors with depressive symptoms among the elderly, this study focussed on the socio-economic status-related inequa...
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| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Book |
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Elsevier,
2023-12-01T00:00:00Z.
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| Summary: | Background: To date, evidence remained inconclusive explaining rural-urban and male-female differential in depression. Unlike other previous research on the association of several risk factors with depressive symptoms among the elderly, this study focussed on the socio-economic status-related inequality in the prevalence of depression among the elderly along with focussing urban-rural and male-female gradients of depression among the elderly. Methods: This study used data from Longitudinal Ageing Study in India (LASI) Wave-I, 2017-18, survey. The outcome variable for this study was self-reported depression. Bivariate analysis was used to understand the prevalence by sociodemographic clusters. Fairlie decomposition analysis has been done to measures rural-urban inequalities for depression among older men and women. Results: Results found that around 22 percent of urban elderly and 17 percent of rural elderly reported depression. A higher proportion of female elderly (22.6% vs. 18.4%) reported depression than male elderly. Almost one in every five elderly (20.6%) reported depression in India. The results found that a higher percentage of women in rural and urban areas reported depression than their male counterparts. While examining SES-related inequality in the prevalence of depression, education was a significant factor explaining the SES-related inequality in the prevalence of depression among female elderly and not in male elderly. Conclusion: Given the large proportion of elderly reporting depression, this study highlights the need for improving health care services among the elderly. The increasing burden of depression in specific sub-populations also highlights the importance of understanding the broader consequences of depression among rural and female elderly. |
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| Item Description: | 2772-6533 10.1016/j.dialog.2023.100114 |