MENTAL HEALTH AND ITS LINKAGES WITH HOUSEHOLD ECONOMIC STATUS - AN ANALYSIS AMONG INDIAN ELDERLY

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Syamala Sankaranrayanan

Institute for Social and Economic Change, India

: Int J Ment Health Psychiatry

Abstract

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The linkages between economic progress and happiness have always been debated. This relationship is all the more contested in the case of elderly. It is often argued in the case of India that well being of elderly critically depends upon the care provided by the children than any other forms of care either from institutions or from other members. However, the well being and happiness of elderly in relation to the economic standard of living has not been systematically examined particularly in the context of India. Undoubtedly, the health status of the elderly has strong bearing on their economic well being. This is true not only with regard to the physical health measured in terms of morbidity but even self rated health measured in terms of graded opinion on their health status. But how far this is true with respect to mental happiness of the elderly remain unknown. This is mainly because the data on mental health or happiness are rarely collected and as such its linkages with various other important socio-economic dimensions are still not clear. This paper therefore tries to understand the levels of metal health status of the Indian elderly and its major socio economic determinants. This paper further investigates the impacts of household economic status on the mental health of the elderly by considering several intervening forces behind this relationship. This paper draws from the data gathered from over 9852 elderly in seven states in India under the UNFPA study on “Building Knowledge Base on Ageing in India”. The study brings out the myths of many commonly believed notions on the economic wellbeing of elderly and its linkages with mental health status. The paper identifies a positive linkage between the household economic status and better mental health outcomes.

Biography

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