Aging on the Margins: Unmet Healthcare Needs and Mortality among Older Filipinos

Mark Ryan Paguirigan, University of the Philippines Population Institute
Christian Joy Cruz, University of the Philippines Population Institute
Maria Karlene Shawn I Cabaraban, Department of Sociology, University of Vienna
Grace Cruz, University of the Philippines Population Institute

Unmet healthcare needs are linked to poorer health outcomes, however, their impact on mortality remains unclear. This study seeks to examine whether unmet healthcare needs act as an independent risk factor for mortality among Filipinos aged 60 and above. Using data from two waves of the Longitudinal Study of Ageing and Health in the Philippines, the analysis draws on a sample of 5,985 individuals from Wave 1 to examine the relationship between unmet healthcare needs and time to mortality. The study will employ the Cox Proportional Hazards Model, a widely used survival analysis method, which allows for controlling important variables such as age, sex, wealth quintile, and diagnosed illnesses. Initial findings indicate that a substantial proportion of older Filipinos (29% at baseline and 22% at follow-up) have unmet healthcare needs. About a fifth of older persons in the country died, regardless of whether they had unmet healthcare needs or not. The results offer empirical evidence on how unmet healthcare needs may affect the level of mortality in a developing country like the Philippines, where access to healthcare is often restricted by socioeconomic, geographic, and systemic barriers. The findings will help guide efforts to improve healthcare access and reduce preventable deaths.

Keywords: Population Ageing, Inequality, Disadvantage and Discrimination, Mortality and Longevity

See extended abstract.