Socio-economic status & its relationship to morbidity among elderly.

This paper seeks to review the current state of art in the area of morbidity and the socio-economic status of the elderly in India and the relationship between the two. It is concerned primarily with research on social factors, illness and its relationship. It has the following concerns: (i) conceptualisation of morbidity, illness, disease and mortality; (ii) the nature of illness, disease; (iii) quantum of disease and; (iv) how variations in the rates of diseases are related to social characteristics. Available evidence from past and contemporary studies indicate that a large number of factors tend to affect morbidity among the elderly.