Changing family structures and self-rated health of India's older population (1995-96 to 2014).
Family
Health
India
Marriage
Older adults
Parity
Social support
Journal
SSM - population health
ISSN: 2352-8273
Titre abrégé: SSM Popul Health
Pays: England
ID NLM: 101678841
Informations de publication
Date de publication:
Aug 2020
Aug 2020
Historique:
received:
20
08
2019
revised:
17
03
2020
accepted:
19
03
2020
entrez:
24
4
2020
pubmed:
24
4
2020
medline:
24
4
2020
Statut:
epublish
Résumé
A common view within academia and Indian society is that older Indians are cared for by their families less than in the past. Children are a key source of support in later life and alternatives are limited, therefore declining fertility appears to corroborate this. However, the situation may be more complex. Having many children may be physiologically burdensome for women, sons and daughters have distinct care roles, social trends could affect support provision, and spouses also provide support. We assessed whether the changing structure of families has negatively affected health of the older population using three cross-sectional and nationally representative surveys of India's 60-plus population (1995-96, 2004 and 2014). We described changes in self-rated health and family structure (number of children, sons, and daughters, and marital status) and, using ordinal regression modelling, determined the association between family structure and self-rated health, stratified by survey year and gender. Our results indicate that family structure changes that occurred between 1995-96 and 2014 were largely associated with better health. Though family sizes declined, there were no health gains from having more than two children. In fact, having many children (particularly daughters) was associated with worse health for both men and women. There was some evidence that being sonless or childless was associated with worse health, but it remained rare to not have a son or child. Being currently married was associated with better health and became more common over the inter-survey period. Although our results suggest that demographic trends have not adversely affected health of the older population thus far, we propose that the largest changes in family structure are yet to come. The support available in coming years (and potential health impact) will rely on flexibility of the current system.
Identifiants
pubmed: 32322656
doi: 10.1016/j.ssmph.2020.100572
pii: S2352-8273(19)30258-7
pii: 100572
pmc: PMC7160449
doi:
Types de publication
Journal Article
Langues
eng
Pagination
100572Informations de copyright
© 2020 Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts
None.
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