Health Wellbeing and Morbidity Prevalence Among Elderly Women in India: Does Living Condition Matters?

Elderly women suffer from multiple disadvantages resulting from biases to gender and widowhood. This study will pertain to understand the association between living arrangements and health well being among elderly women in India. The present study utilised data from Indian Human Development Survey (IHDS 2005). Both Bivariate and multivariate analysis have been applied in this study. Eighty three percent of elderly women are living in joint families and three percent are living alone in India. The number of women living in a joint family is higher in urban (84%) than rural (82%) areas. Women’s age, marital status and economic status are found as significant determinants of their living arrangements as well as their health well being. High BP has the highest burden on health in India. Women who are living alone are likely to suffer with any short term and long term morbidity, than other categories of living arrangements. The elderly population, particularly women, are more likely to suffer with multiple health and psychological problems. There is an urgent need to pay greater attention to elderly women and to support holistic policies and programs for ensuring their health well being and social security.