Bora, Jayanta Kumar, and Nandita Saikia, “Gender Differentials in Self-Related Health and Self-Rated Health and Self-Reported Disability among Adults in India,” PLOS One 10, no.11 (November 2015), doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0141953

URL: journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0141953

Abstract

Background: The extant literature on gender differentials in health in developed countries suggests that women outlive men at all ages, but women report poorer health than men. It is well established that Indian women live longer than men, but few studies have been conducted to understand the gender dimension in self-rated health and self-reported disability. The present study investigates gender differentials in self-rated health (SRH) and self-reported disability (SRD) among adults in India, using a nationally representative data.

Methods: Using data on 10,736 respondents aged 18 and older in the 2007 WHO Study on Global Ageing and Adult Health in India, prevalence estimates of SRH are calculated separately for men and women by socio-economic and demographic characteristics. The association of SRH with gender is tested using a multinomial logistic regression method. SRD is assessed using 20 activities of daily living (ADL). Further, gender differences in total life expectancy (TLE), disability life expectancy (DLE) and the proportion of life spent with a disability at various adult ages are measured.

Results: The relative risk of reporting poor health by women was significantly higher than men (relative risk ratio: 1.660; 95% confidence Interval (CI): 1.430–1.927) after adjusting for socio-economic and demographic characteristics. Women reported higher prevalence of severe and extreme disability than men in 14 measures out of a total 20 ADL measures. Women aged less than 60 years reported two times more than men in SRD ≥ 5 ADLs. Finally, both DLE and proportion of life spent with a disability were substantially higher for women irrespective of their ages.

Conclusion: Indian women live longer but report poorer health than men. A substantial gender differential is found in self-reported disability. This makes for an urgent call to health researchers and policy makers for gender-sensitive programs.

This study highlights that the gender differentials found in self-reported disability among women in India was consistent with reports from other parts of the world. It recommends that research focus on meeting the personal care needs of these women who face unique vulnerabilities and challenges.