Full Title: Adult Mortality in India: The Health–Wealth Nexus Debasis Barik Associate Fellow National Council of Applied Economic Research
[email protected] Sonalde Desai Professor of Sociology, University of Maryland College Park And Senior Fellow, National Council of Applied Economic Research
[email protected] Reeve Vanneman Professor of Sociology, University of Maryland College Park
[email protected] February 26, 2016 India Human Development Survey was funded by grants R01HD041455 and R01HD061048 from the US National Institutes of Health and a supplementary grant from the Ford Foundation. Data analysis was the funded by the UK government as part of its Knowledge Partnership Programme (KPP). PAA 2016 | Session 58 Adult Mortality in India: The Health–Wealth Nexus Debasis Barik, Sonalde Desai, Reeve Vanneman Abstract Research on wealth and adult mortality is often stymied by the reciprocity of this relationship. While financial resources increase access to healthcare and nutrition and reduce mortality, sickness also reduces labor force participation, thereby reducing income. Without longitudinal data, it is difficult to study the linkage between economic status and mortality. Using data from a national sample of 133,379 comprising Indian adults aged 15 years and above, this paper examines their likelihood of death between wave 1 of the India Human Development Survey (IHDS), conducted in 2004-05 and wave 2, conducted in 2011- 12. The results show that mortality between the two waves is strongly linked to the economic status of the household at wave 1. Household wealth is positively associated with the manifestation of hypertension, diabetes and cardiac conditions, but wealth also reduces the likelihood of death conditional on having these diseases.