Indian Journal of Gerontology
Year : 2020, Volume : 34, Issue : 1
First page : ( 52) Last page : ( 66)
Print ISSN : 0971-4189.

Factors influencing living alone among elderly widows in rural Puducherry

Nirmalasaravanan N.

Indian Institute of Health Management Research University, Jaipur-302029

Online published on 23 December, 2020.

Abstract

The paper aims to find out those factors which affect the ‘living alone’ as against ‘co-residing’ with others among elderly widows belonging to rural Puducherry. Cross-sectional and primary data was collected by using interview schedule from 130 elderly widows (60 years and above of age) from selected (10 Primary Sampling Units, which are parts of 9 Panchayat communes) rural areas of Puducherry. The results showed that about one-third of the sample elderly widows (33%) are ‘living alone’ closely followed by living with married son (28.5%) and married daughter (18.5%), whereas the remaining of them are co-residing with others such as unmarried children, siblings/relatives, grand children and widowed daughter. Differentials in living arrangements viz., ‘living alone’ as against ‘co-residing with others’ across their selected background characteristics are mostly on the expected lines (based on cross-tabular analysis with Chi-square test of significance). Binary logistic regression analysis results revealed that the tendency to ‘live alone’ by the sample elderly widows is observed to be pertinently lower among those who belonged to households of fairly higher family monthly income (p<0.001) followed by those who attained widowhood comparatively at higher ages (56+ years; p<0.01) and such likelihood is moderately lower among those who are said to be economically (partially/fully) dependent (p<0.05) and have three or more number of surviving children (p<0.05) than their counterparts. Literacy status, community background, owning of asset(s) and functional ability (IADL score) have also exhibited net effects on ‘living alone’ by the elderly widows, but insignificantly.

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Keywords

Living arrangements, Elderly widows, Rural Puducherry.

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