DETERMINANTS OF ADULT MORTALITY IN INDIA

Abstract

This study attempts to evaluate the factors affecting adult mortality with special emphasis on the lifestyle factors using the 1998–1999 National Family Health Survey (NFHS). The sample size, N, in this analysis is 330,267. It includes those aged 15–59 of which 2.6 per cent died during adulthood. In the Poisson regression model, the independent variables used are age, sex, place of residence, lifestyle factors of other members of the family, standard of living, literacy composition, caste, religion, mass media exposure, household type, fuel for cooking and region of residence. This analysis has been adjusted for the clustering of deaths at the family level. The findings suggest that there is a strong positive relationship between lifestyle factors and premature mortality, even after controlling for other background characteristics of the deceased person. Further, age, standard of living index (SLI), literacy composition, religion, household type and region of residence are some important determinants of adult mortality in India.

Keywords:

• adult
• mortality
• socio-economic
• India
• health
• lifestyle

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments for improving the quality of the paper. Authors are also grateful to Dr Abhishek Singh, Associate Professor, Department of Public Health and Mortality, IIPS, Mumbai, for his useful suggestion. We would like to thank Professor M. Guruswamy, IIPS, Mumbai, for editing assistance.

Notes

1. The report for the Medical Certification of Cause of Death 2001 is the 28th in a series of publications presenting statistics on the causes of death. These statistics are obtained through the Civil Registration System under the Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1969. Section 10(3) of the Act provides for the issuing of a certificate of cause of death by the medical practitioner who has attended to the deceased at the time of death. In the report, data on medically-certified deaths received from 24 states/Union Territories (UTs) are tabulated in conformity with the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) Tenth Revision (1993).

2. Standard of living index (SLI) has been taken as a proxy indicator of economic status. It has been constructed on the basis of a number of questions about household properties or amenities, asked with the intent to measure the economic status of the household indirectly.