Are Lifestyle Diseases a Matter of Concern for Elderly Women: A Study of Older Old and Oldest Old Population

The elderly women are more vulnerable in India due to the patriarchal nature of Indian society. The present study aims at understanding the extent of life style disease (LSDs) among elderly women and to explore the factors associated with the selected LSDs in India. Using IHDS, 2004-05 data we have analyzed three major LSDs namely High BP, Heart disease and Diabetes. This study is restricted to elderly women who are 60 years and above. The study has employed bi-variate and multivariate analysis to find out the association between socioeconomic & demographic characteristics and selected LSDs among elderly women. The results shows that a high proportion of elderly women (38%) suffer from high blood pressure followed by diabetes (18%) and less than ten percent of them report heart problems. Furthermore, the multi-nominal results show that the LSDs is equally prevalent in urban area, high caste groups, educated and non-poor section of the society.