A gendered analysis of protective factors for old age mortality in the Nairobi slums, Kenya
A gendered analysis of protective factors for old age mortality in the Nairobi slums, Kenya
Urbanisation and population ageing are occurring simultaneously in many sub-Saharan African countries, contributing to an increasingly pressing need to understand which factors enable older people in this region to navigate the challenges associated with city life. Research has shown that slum dwellers face disproportionate health disadvantages relative to the rest of the population yet very few studies have offered gendered explanations for the health inequities within informal settlements. This paper uses unique longitudinal data collected in two Nairobi slums to examine the role of individual characteristics, social networks, health status and socio-economic status as protective factors for mortality amongst older men and women. The results indicate that women have poorer health and socio-economic status and contrasting social networks to men, and female gender is only a significant protective factor for mortality after adjusting for social networks, health and socio-economic status. The distribution of protective factors is more dispersed amongst men than women and the gender-specific mortality analyses reveals more factors differentiate mortality risk amongst men than women. Therefore the finding that gender is only significant after controlling for other factors is indicative of both the cumulative disadvantage of women: masking the female survival advantage observed across world regions, and large within-gender differences amongst men: failure to account for which exaggerates a male advantage in survival. Consequently, there is a need for gender sensitive policies which seek to both redress the disadvantages women face across the life course and to account for the special needs of both genders as they grow old.
Bennett, Rachel
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Chepngeno-Langat, Gloria
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Evandrou, Maria
cd2210ea-9625-44d7-b0f4-fc0721a25d28
Falkingham, Jane
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Bennett, Rachel
53222607-43bd-46d3-9448-1599fd785ac0
Chepngeno-Langat, Gloria
4a386fed-03ca-4791-827a-ec7a7950530c
Evandrou, Maria
cd2210ea-9625-44d7-b0f4-fc0721a25d28
Falkingham, Jane
8df36615-1547-4a6d-ad55-aa9496e85519
Bennett, Rachel, Chepngeno-Langat, Gloria, Evandrou, Maria and Falkingham, Jane
(2014)
A gendered analysis of protective factors for old age mortality in the Nairobi slums, Kenya.
British Society for Population Studies Annual Conference, Winchester, United Kingdom.
08 - 10 Sep 2014.
Record type:
Conference or Workshop Item
(Paper)
Abstract
Urbanisation and population ageing are occurring simultaneously in many sub-Saharan African countries, contributing to an increasingly pressing need to understand which factors enable older people in this region to navigate the challenges associated with city life. Research has shown that slum dwellers face disproportionate health disadvantages relative to the rest of the population yet very few studies have offered gendered explanations for the health inequities within informal settlements. This paper uses unique longitudinal data collected in two Nairobi slums to examine the role of individual characteristics, social networks, health status and socio-economic status as protective factors for mortality amongst older men and women. The results indicate that women have poorer health and socio-economic status and contrasting social networks to men, and female gender is only a significant protective factor for mortality after adjusting for social networks, health and socio-economic status. The distribution of protective factors is more dispersed amongst men than women and the gender-specific mortality analyses reveals more factors differentiate mortality risk amongst men than women. Therefore the finding that gender is only significant after controlling for other factors is indicative of both the cumulative disadvantage of women: masking the female survival advantage observed across world regions, and large within-gender differences amongst men: failure to account for which exaggerates a male advantage in survival. Consequently, there is a need for gender sensitive policies which seek to both redress the disadvantages women face across the life course and to account for the special needs of both genders as they grow old.
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e-pub ahead of print date: 10 September 2014
Venue - Dates:
British Society for Population Studies Annual Conference, Winchester, United Kingdom, 2014-09-08 - 2014-09-10
Organisations:
Gerontology
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Local EPrints ID: 373631
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/373631
PURE UUID: a491bf54-58d0-47af-aed1-f2129cd2d1c5
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Date deposited: 27 Jan 2015 13:54
Last modified: 06 Mar 2024 02:42
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Contributors
Author:
Rachel Bennett
Author:
Gloria Chepngeno-Langat
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