Urban-rural and gender differential in depressive symptoms among elderly in India

Urban-rural and gender differential in depressive symptoms among elderly in India

Blog Article

Background: To date, evidence remained inconclusive explaining rural-urban and male-female differential in depression.Unlike other previous research on the association of several risk factors with depressive symptoms among the elderly, this study focussed on the socio-economic status-related inequality in the prevalence of depression among the elderly along with focussing urban-rural and male-female gradients of depression among the elderly.Methods: This study used data from Longitudinal Ageing Study in India (LASI) Wave-I, 2017-18, survey.The outcome variable for this study was self-reported depression.

Bivariate here analysis was used to understand the prevalence by sociodemographic clusters.Fairlie decomposition analysis has been done to measures rural-urban inequalities for depression among older men and women.Results: Results found that around 22 percent of urban elderly and 17 percent of rural elderly reported depression.A higher proportion of female elderly (22.

6% vs.18.4%) reported depression than male elderly.Almost one in every five elderly (20.

6%) reported depression in India.The results found that a higher percentage of women in here rural and urban areas reported depression than their male counterparts.While examining SES-related inequality in the prevalence of depression, education was a significant factor explaining the SES-related inequality in the prevalence of depression among female elderly and not in male elderly.Conclusion: Given the large proportion of elderly reporting depression, this study highlights the need for improving health care services among the elderly.

The increasing burden of depression in specific sub-populations also highlights the importance of understanding the broader consequences of depression among rural and female elderly.