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Changing family structures and self-rated health of India's older population (1995-96 to 2014)

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...

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Autores principales: Lieber, Judith, Clarke, Lynda, Timæus, Ian M., Mallinson, Poppy Alice Carson, Kinra, Sanjay
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Elsevier 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7160449/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32322656
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmph.2020.100572
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author Lieber, Judith
Clarke, Lynda
Timæus, Ian M.
Mallinson, Poppy Alice Carson
Kinra, Sanjay
author_facet Lieber, Judith
Clarke, Lynda
Timæus, Ian M.
Mallinson, Poppy Alice Carson
Kinra, Sanjay
author_sort Lieber, Judith
collection PubMed
description 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.
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spelling pubmed-71604492020-04-22 Changing family structures and self-rated health of India's older population (1995-96 to 2014) Lieber, Judith Clarke, Lynda Timæus, Ian M. Mallinson, Poppy Alice Carson Kinra, Sanjay SSM Popul Health Article 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. Elsevier 2020-03-25 /pmc/articles/PMC7160449/ /pubmed/32322656 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmph.2020.100572 Text en © 2020 Published by Elsevier Ltd. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Lieber, Judith
Clarke, Lynda
Timæus, Ian M.
Mallinson, Poppy Alice Carson
Kinra, Sanjay
Changing family structures and self-rated health of India's older population (1995-96 to 2014)
title Changing family structures and self-rated health of India's older population (1995-96 to 2014)
title_full Changing family structures and self-rated health of India's older population (1995-96 to 2014)
title_fullStr Changing family structures and self-rated health of India's older population (1995-96 to 2014)
title_full_unstemmed Changing family structures and self-rated health of India's older population (1995-96 to 2014)
title_short Changing family structures and self-rated health of India's older population (1995-96 to 2014)
title_sort changing family structures and self-rated health of india's older population (1995-96 to 2014)
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7160449/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32322656
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmph.2020.100572
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