Trends, changes and determinants of medical attention received before death among deceased adults in India: evidence from pooled cross-sectional survey data (2004-2018)

Abstract

Background: India is coping an ageing population without an adequate medical care service. However, trends, changes and factors of receiving medical attention before death remains unknown. Therefore, we intend to examine the trends, changes and determinants of medical attention received before death among the deceased adults in India.

Methods: our study has used a nationally representative pooled-cross-sectional survey data from2004 to 2017-18. We performed univariate, bivariate and multivariate analyses. We have examined the trends from 2004 to 2017-18. Then we estimated the absolute changes in medical attention rate (MAR) received before death by the 45+ deceased adults for the time period between 2004-2005 & 2017-2018 and 2014 & 2017-2018. Lastly, we applied binary logistic regression analysis to identify the effect of significant predictor variables on the medical attention received before death.

Results: our study has revealed that there has been marginal increase (0.74%) in the overall trend in medical attention received before death among 45+ adults from 2004 to 2017-18. Females, rural residence are showing negative change in receiving medical attention. However, our finding has showed that young-old, middle-old and oldest-old have significantly lower odds of receiving medical attention compared to middle-aged adults. Surprisingly, our result has revealed that Southern and Western regions are found to have significantly less likely to receive medical attention before death among deceased adults which is a striking finding.

Conclusions: therefore, there is an urgent need to establish a primary health center at community level that play an important role in order to meet the comprehensive requirements of middle-aged and older adults in India. It would be helpful to develop and execute the health policies and programs that would enable India to achieve healthy aging in India at national and subnational levels, as it is a key element of public health challenges.

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ORCID for Saddaf Naaz Akhtar: orcid.org/0000-0002-0346-5220

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