Exploring the Effects of Gender Differences and Widowhood Status on the Days Spent in Poor Health: A Secondary Data Analysis from India.

The majority of research in India has focused on the impact of widowhood on health status and health care use, while little emphasis has been paid to the number of days spent in poor health among widowed population compare to other marital categories. Thus, the current study explores the relationship between widowhood and days spent with poor health outcomes among adults in India. Additionally, gender differences in the relationship between widowhood and days with poor health outcomes are further studied.The research employed nationally representative cross-sectional data from the 75th round (2017-2018) of the National Sample Survey (NSS). To investigate the associations of marital status (married vs widowed) and other factors with days spent in poor health, a negative binomial regression model was used. Additionally, the interaction model of age and widowhood was estimated separately for men and women.The findings suggest that widowed individuals had consistently prolonged days with an illness, limited activity, and confinement to bed. After adjusting for socioeconomic and demographic characteristics, the findings suggested that widowed women (IRR = 1.141, 95% Confidence interval = 1.01-1.29) were more likely to spend days with limited acitivities than married women. The marital status-age interaction indicated that older widowed women were more likely to have days of restricted activity and confinement to bed than married women, but such link is absent for men.In India, the elderly widow often spends her days confined to bed and prolonged days with limited activity. Policymakers and practitioners in public health should develop effective policies and programmes to enhance the health and well-being of widowed women, particularly those from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds.

Persistence of Multimorbidity Among Women Aged 15-49 Years in India: An Analysis of Prevalence, Patterns and Correlation.

Objectives: The present study has examined the patterns and possible correlates of coexisting morbidities among women aged 15-49 years based on biomarker measurement data at the national level in India. Methods: National Family Health Survey conducted during 2015-16 used in the present study. Simple disease count approach was used to calculate the multimorbidity among women. Multinomial logistic regression was applied to analyze the predictors of multimorbidity among women. Results: Almost 30% of the women had any of the selected morbidity and 9% of them had two or more morbidities. Hypertension and overweight combination (3%) was the most prevalent among women. The risk of having two or more morbidities was predominantly high among women aged above 30 years, low educated women, women from the wealthier group, ever-married women and women who were consuming tobacco as compared to their counterparts. Conclusions: From the policy perspective, the identification of groups of women vulnerable to multimorbidity will help in the selection of programmatic focus and preventive public health intervention in adult phase to reduce the multimorbidity burden among women in old ages.