Pensions, Gender and Health: An analysis of pension effects over time in rural South Africa

A state-funded non-contributory pension plays an important role in poor and AIDS-affected rural South African households. Earlier cross-sectional analyses of 2006 and 2010 WHO-INDEPTH Study of Global Aging and Adult Health (WHO-SAGE) survey from the MRC/University of the Witwatersrand Rural Public Health and Health Transitions Unit (Agincourt) show strong sex differences in reports of health and wellbeing in persons over the age of 50, as well as gendered but temporary positive impact of pension receipt on older persons’ health and wellbeing. This paper builds on the earlier work through longitudinal analyses within individuals interviewed in both 2006 and 2010 to assess whether individual results mirror the cross-sectional results. Specifically, we hypothesize that for individuals, reported health and wellbeing will improve in the five years following pension receipt, and decrease in the years following; and, that the “pension bump” will be more prominent for women than for men.