IIT-M research suggests greater govt investment in healthcare

Contending that the pandemic poses a greater risk of social isolation among the elderly, which may cause detrimental health impact, research undertaken by the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology-Madras (IIT-M) has pitched for “greater government investment” in public healthcare to mitigate the impact of Covid-19 on the elderly.

The study conducted based on the 75th round of the National Sample Survey (NSS) 2017-18, found only 18.9 per cent of the elderly had health insurance and therefore they may not be able to bear large expenditures on health, and further, 27.5 per cent of people whose age is 80 years or above are immobile and 70 per cent of elders are partially or wholly financially dependent on others.

The study was undertaken by Prof VR Muraleedharan, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Madras, and Dr Alok Ranjan, the first Author who was a Post-Doctoral Student at IIT Madras till December 2020.

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The NSS survey covered 113,823 households and 555,115 individuals from randomly selected 8,077 villages and 6,181 urban areas. The results showed that disparities exist in health status as well as healthcare access of elderly people across the country, the institute said.

The research concluded that the current pandemic poses a greater risk of social isolation among the elderly, which may lead to a greater adverse health impact.

“Overall, given the evidence on the possible hardships that the elderly may have already gone through during the pandemic and hardships that they may face in the future, the importance of strengthening the public health care system cannot be over-emphasised,” the researchers opined.

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“Our research highlights ways in which the elderly may have suffered even due to Covid-19 control measures, such as social/physical distancing that could increase depression, and lead to a higher chance of inflammatory response in the elderly. There are several such ailments specific to the vulnerable elderly population,” Prof Muraleedharan said.

The vulnerability of India’s elderly increases across economic levels, and other dimensions such as the place of residence, gender, social group (caste), marital status, living arrangements, surviving children, and economic dependence, the research further added.

The researchers want to extend the result of this study to a policy, and plan to carry out detailed surveys among the elderly population particularly in Tamil Nadu, especially to design effective rehabilitative care which is almost absent in India’s public healthcare system.