Gender and Widowhood: Disparity in Health Status and Health Care Utilization Among the Aged in India

Abstract

Despite an increasing feminization of India's older population marked by a high incidence of widowhood among aged women, women's health in later life and the health consequences of widowhood has received little attention in the existing gender and gerontological scholarship in India. Based on data of a nationally representative survey by the National Sample Survey Organization (N = 34,831, ages 60 and over), this study analyzed marital status, gender, health and health care utilization, and examined the gendered nature of aging and widowhood in India. Significant differences were found in health status and utilization of health care services by gender and marital status. Widowed persons of either gender were found to be the most vulnerable and, overall, widows emerge as the most disadvantaged group.

Marital Status, Sex and Utilisation of Healthcare Service Among the Older Adults in India

“…The ndings from present study are consistent with the prior studies in Taiwan and India [14,44]. In the light of marital protection hypothesis, we nd found that widowhood and the use of inpatient healthcare services has a strong association for women and there is inconsistency in such association for men [1-3, 44, 46].…”

“…With the extended duration in the widowhood status, there is a re ection of poor physical health and subjective health among widowed women in India [15,24]. A certain change in marital status also has a replicative effect on health services utilisation [14]. The study nds that a change in marital status can critically affect the use of inpatient health care services among older women.…”

“…In India, conceptually similar work has also been carried out by Sreerupa (2010), concluding signi cantly higher dependency on inpatient and outpatient health care utilisation among widows than widowers [14]. As against this, some studies have concluded that older widows are less likely to seek health care services for different noncommunicable diseases [15].…”

“…The studies nd that the health status of the widowed elderly is worse than the non-widowed elderly [4]. These studies also attempted to understand the relationship between marital status and health care utilisation, but it provides an inconclusive explanation on why such differential exists [14]. Moreover, the studies did not analyse the differentials and causes in a structured framework.…”

Medical intervention before death of elderly in India: An inquiry into gender‐based difference

“…31 In case a female leads a long life, she is more likely to lose her spouse, followed by a decline in social status and financial support. 32 Furthermore, the adversity increases manifolds by lack of age-appropriate healthcare support system. The findings indicate that the elderly, who either live alone or with a large family, are unable to access adequate healthcare facilities at the time of death.…”