Socio-economic inequalities in health and health service use among older adults in India: results from the WHO Study on Global AGEing and adult health survey.

Objective: The objectives of this study were to measure socio-economic inequalities in self-reported health (SRH) and healthcare visits and to identify factors contributing to health inequalities among older people aged 50-plus years.

Study Design: This study is based on a population-based, cross-sectional survey.

Methods: We accessed data of 7150 older adults from the World Health Organization's Study on Global AGEing and adult health Indian survey.

Health, Social, and Economic Variables Associated with Depression Among Older People in Low and Middle Income Countries: World Health Organization Study on Global AGEing and Adult Health.

Objective: Although depression among older people is an important public health problem worldwide, systematic studies evaluating its prevalence and determinants in low and middle income countries (LMICs) are sparse. The biopsychosocial model of depression and prevailing socioeconomic hardships for older people in LMICs have provided the impetus to determine the prevalence of geriatric depression; to study its associations with health, social, and economic variables; and to investigate socioeconomic inequalities in depression prevalence in LMICs.

Methods: The authors accessed the World Health Organization Study on Global AGEing and Adult Health Wave 1 data that studied nationally representative samples from six large LMICs (N = 14,877).

Association between gender inequality index and child mortality rates: a cross-national study of 138 countries.

Background: Gender inequality weakens maternal health and harms children through many direct and indirect pathways. Allied biological disadvantage and psychosocial adversities challenge the survival of children of both genders. United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has recently developed a Gender Inequality Index to measure the multidimensional nature of gender inequality.

Health service use, out-of-pocket payments and catastrophic health expenditure among older people in India: the WHO Study on global AGEing and adult health (SAGE).

Background: Healthcare financing through out-of-pocket payments and inequities in healthcare utilisation are common in low and middle income countries (LMICs). Given the dearth of pertinent studies on these issues among older people in LMICs, we investigated the determinants of health service use, out-of-pocket and catastrophic health expenditures among older people in one LMIC, India.

Methods: We accessed data from a nationally representative, multistage sample of 2414 people aged 65 years and older from the WHO's Study on global AGEing and adult health in India.

Cost and burden of informal caregiving of dependent older people in a rural Indian community.

Background: Lack of state supported care services begets the informal caregiving by family members as the mainstay of care provided to the dependent older people in many Low and Middle Income Countries (LMICs), including India. Little is known about the time spent on caregiving, its cost and the burden experienced by these informal caregivers. We aimed to estimate the costs of informal caregiving and to evaluate the nature as well as correlates of caregivers' burden in a rural Indian community.