Work participation and mental and physical health outcomes among a national community-dwelling sample of older adult men and women in India

ABSTRACT

This study aimed to assess the association between work participation and various health outcomes in older community-dwelling adults in India. The cross-sectional sample consisted of 14,342 male and 8342 female participants (≥60 years) from the Longitudinal Aging Study in India (LASI) Wave 1 in 2017–2018. Among older men (≥60 years) who had ever been working, 45.5% and among older women (≥60 years), 35.7% were working. In adjusted Poisson, linear or logistic regression analyses, work participation was among both men and women associated with better self-rated health status, lower prevalence of insomnia symptoms, lower prevalence of heart disease or stroke, lower prevalence of diabetes, lower functional limitations, lower physical inactivity, and higher heavy episodic drinking. In addition, among men, work participation was associated with current tobacco use, and among women, work participation was associated with higher cognitive functioning, and lower prevalence of depressive symptoms.

KEYWORDS:

• Work participation
• health outcomes
• physical health
• mental health
• older adults
• India

Acknowledgments

The Longitudinal Aging Study in India Project is funded by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India, the National Institute on Aging (R01 AG042778, R01 AG030153), and United Nations Population Fund, India.

Declarations

All methods were carried out in accordance with relevant guidelines and regulations.

Ethics approval and consent to participate

The study was approved by the “Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) Ethics Committee in January 2017 and written or oral informed consent was obtained from the participants.” All methods were carried out in accordance with relevant guidelines and regulations and in accordance with the World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki.

Availability of data and materials

The data are available at the The Gateway to Global Aging Data (www.g2aging.org).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Authors’ contributions

All authors fulfil the criteria for authorship. SP and KP conceived and designed the research, performed statistical analysis, drafted the manuscript, and made critical revisions of the manuscript for key intellectual content. All authors read and approved the final version of the manuscript and have agreed to the authorship and order of authorship for this manuscript.