Gender, Marital Status and Health among the Elderly in Singapore

Santosh Jatrana, University of Otago, Wellington School of Medicine & Health Sciences, Department of Public Health

This paper examines the association between gender, marital status and health in later life and the role of the social support and economic factors in mediating the relationship between marital status and elderly, using the 1999 survey of Transitions in Health, Wealth, and Welfare of Elderly Singaporeans: 1995-1999. Our analyzes include three indicators of health, self-assessed health, chronic disorder and functional disability. Using logistic regression and interaction terms, we found significant gender interaction between the effects of gender and several of the socioeconomic and social support variables that we consider. Our hypothesis that being unmarried is more detrimental for older men than for older women seems to be borne out in this analysis with regards to self assessed health and the presence of a chronic condition. Rather than being disadvantaged, unmarried older females report better health than their male counterparts. These results suggest being unmarried at older ages need not have deleterious health effects for women.