Oral Health Problems and Cognitive Functioning among Indian Older Adults: The Role of Socioeconomic Disparities

Junaid Khan, Vivekananda College

This study utilized the LASI, Wave-1 data to examine the role of socioeconomic disparity in understanding the oral health associated differential in cognitive functioning among older adults in India. A total of 64,238 individuals constitutes the analytical sample of the study. Analyses suggest that 52.57% of the Indian older adults report having oral health problems and 9.82% of Indian older adults experience poor cognition. The prevalence of poor cognition is slightly higher (9.94%) among those without oral health problems compared to those with oral health problems (9.71%). Individuals in the poorest quintile have the highest rate of poor cognition at 13.5%, while those in the richest quintile have the lowest rate at 6.3%. For individuals without oral health problems, the prevalence of poor cognition decreases progressively with higher economic status, ranging from 14.4% among the poorest to 6.6% among the richest. The poorest individuals with oral health problems have a 12.7% prevalence of poor cognition, compared to 5.9% among the richest with oral health problems. This study indicates that while oral health problems are associated with higher poor cognition rates across all economic levels, better economic conditions tend to reduce the prevalence of poor cognition.

Keywords: Health and Morbidity, Inequality, Disadvantage and Discrimination, Decomposition analysis, Population Ageing

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