Bidirectional relation between employment and chronic disease prevalence and medical care among the older population in India

Priyanka Yadav, Jawaharlal Nehru University

This study assesses the employment, financial support, health and medical care aspects of aging in India. Findings provide evidences for a bi-directional relationship between employment and chronic morbidity in older population. Older population, who engaged in regular paid work have lower likelihood of having disease compared to those who are not working. In other words, older persons suffering with chronic diseases may be unable to work in regular paid jobs. Similarly, greater proportions of non-working older persons those are suffering with chronic diseases and have financial support through pension and retirement savings from previous job seek more modern treatment and expense on their treatment. The results reveal that employment determines and determined by chronic disease prevalence and treatment seeking behavior among older population. These results would allow policy makers to better ascertain the needs, design pension, other social protection programs, and develop appropriate labor market policies for older population.