English  Français

Objective and subjective socioeconomic status and cognitive impairment among older adults: a population-based study in a developing country

Background: We in this study aim to explore the late-life cognitive impairment as a function of older individuals’ objective and subjective socio-economic status (SES). Methods: Data for this study was utilized from the Longitudinal Ageing Study in India (2017-18). The total sample size for the present study was 31,464 older adults aged 60 and above. Chi square test was used to evaluate the significance level of differences in cognitive impairment. Additionally, binary logistic regression analyses were performed to fulfil the objectives. Results: About 41.7 percent and 43.4 percent of older adults had low subjective and objective SES respectively. It was revealed that older adults with low subjective SES [AOR: 2.04; p<0.05] and objective SES [AOR: 1.32; p<0.05] had significantly higher odds of cognitive impairment in comparison to their counterparts with a stronger subjective SES-cognitive impairment association. It was observed that older adults with low subjective as well as objective SES were 2.45 times more likely to suffer from cognitive impairment compared to older adults from high subjective and objective SES [AOR: 2.45; p<0.05]. Conclusion: The results suggest that more attention should be placed at subjective SES indicators when investigating socioeconomic influences on cognitive functioning among older adults in India.

Keywords: Population ageing, Policy evaluation

See paper.

  Presented in Session 92. Cognitive Health and Older Adults