Title: Assessment of demographic and socio-economic factors on ailments and disability among elderly

Authors: Pallavi Banjare; S.S. Mahapatra; Bikash Ranjan Debata; J.P. Pradhan

Addresses: Department of Humanities and Social Science, National Institute of Technology, Rourkela 769 008, India ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Rourkela 769 008, India ' Department of Humanities and Social Science, National Institute of Technology, Rourkela 769 008, India ' Department of Humanities and Social Science, National Institute of Technology, Rourkela 769 008, India

Abstract: The present study makes an effort to study the influence of demographic and socio-economic factors on ailments and disability among elderly people living in urban and rural areas of India. Data is collected through a well-structured questionnaire, specifically designed for the purpose, to obtain information on demographic factors like gender, marital status, educational qualification, kinship, etc., and socio-economic factors such as annual income, immovable properties, income generating livestock, etc. A sample of 288 elderly men and women above the age of 60 years is considered from both urban and rural household from the State of Odisha, India. Logistic regression method is tailored to fit the categorical dependent variables. The results indicate that the variables which show significant effect on aliments and disability in rural setting are marital status, risk behaviour, and kinship. Similarly, the variables which show significant effect on urban setting are livestock, ownership of house and risk behaviour. Risk behaviour comes out to be a significant factor in both the settings. It is observed that the elderly, having bad habits especially consumption of alcohol and smoking, are prone to ailments leading to disability in the long run.

Keywords: demography; socio-economics; elderly health problems; elderly disabilities; risk behaviour; logistic regression; odds ratio; Odisha; India.

DOI: 10.1504/IJICBM.2014.063971

International Journal of Indian Culture and Business Management, 2014 Vol.9 No.1, pp.74 - 88

Published online: 30 Aug 2014 *

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