Education, gender, and state-level disparities in the health of older Indians: Evidence from biomarker data

Abstract

Using new biomarker data from the 2010 pilot round of the Longitudinal Aging Study in India (LASI), we investigate education, gender, and state-level disparities in health. We find that hemoglobin level, a marker for anemia, is lower for respondents with no schooling (0.7 g/dL less in the adjusted model) compared to those with some formal education and is also lower for females than for males (2.0 g/dL less in the adjusted model). In addition, we find that about one third of respondents in our sample aged 45 or older have high C-reaction protein (CRP) levels (>3 mg/L), an indicator of inflammation and a risk factor for cardiovascular disease. We find no evidence of educational or gender differences in CRP, but there are significant state-level disparities, with Kerala residents exhibiting the lowest CRP levels (a mean of 1.96 mg/L compared to 3.28 mg/L in Rajasthan, the state with the highest CRP). We use the Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition approach to explain group-level differences, and find that state-level disparities in CRP are mainly due to heterogeneity in the association of the observed characteristics of respondents with CRP, rather than differences in the distribution of endowments across the sampled state populations.

Place of Residence and Cognitive Function among the Adult Population in India

“…Earlier studies showed cross-state variations were less consistent across different cognitive skills [5]. In this study, the proportion of urban population in each state was not significantly associated with cognitive function; however, the direction of the coefficient suggested that residents of states with a higher proportion of urban population showed better cognition, which is similar to the findings from previous research [5, 32, 46]. A state’s higher proportion of urban population (online suppl.…”

“…Geographic differences in cognitive function in India have been documented in previous literature [5, 32, 46]. Earlier studies showed cross-state variations were less consistent across different cognitive skills [5].…”

“…In our study sample, the rural-to-rural migrants are more likely to be women and have low SES. Women and low SES have been shown to be associated with worse cognitive function [5, 6, 32]. Additionally, migration and cognition may be linked through psychosocial factors.…”

“…We also included several state-level covariates to account for potential differences across geographic areas in India [5, 32] – including age composition, sex ratio, urbanicity, and literacy rate. Online supplementary Table 1 (for all online suppl.…”

Socioeconomic gradients of cardiovascular risk factors in China and India: results from the China health and retirement longitudinal study and longitudinal aging study in India

“…LASI also measured anthropometric parameters and physical performance, and collected dried blood spot (DBS) specimens using a standardized protocol (Lee et al 2015). The analysis in this paper is restricted to 1,460 respondents who were at least 45 years old.…”