Widow and Widower Mortality in India: A Research Note.

IF 3.6 1区社会学 Q1 DEMOGRAPHY

Demography Pub Date : 2025-08-01 DOI:10.1215/00703370-12177893

Megan N Reed, Babul Hossain, Srinivas Goli, K S James, Aashish Gupta

引用次数: 0

Abstract

Widowhood is associated with elevated mortality risk in many social contexts. This research note is the first study to quantify and contextualize the mortality risk of widowhood for men (widowers) and women (widows) in India. We do so by using data from the first wave of the India Human Development Survey (2004-2005) on individuals whose survival status was observed seven years later in the second wave of the survey. We find no differences in mortality by widowhood status for adults aged 60 or older. However, we find higher mortality risks for widows and widowers aged 25-59 than for individuals who are married. Despite the unique vulnerabilities experienced by Indian widows, we find similar levels of elevated mortality for widows and widowers relative to married individuals aged 25-59. In this age group, we also document higher mortality for widows exposed to conservative and less egalitarian gender norms. These findings suggest that despite India's similarity to other contexts with elevated mortality for both widows and widowers, unequal gender norms still shape life chances for Indian widows.

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印度寡妇和鳏夫死亡率：一份研究报告。

在许多社会背景下，守寡与死亡风险升高有关。这份研究报告是第一份量化和背景化印度男性（鳏夫）和女性（寡妇）丧偶死亡风险的研究。我们使用了印度人类发展调查（2004-2005）的第一波数据，这些数据是在7年后的第二波调查中观察到的。我们发现60岁或以上的成年人守寡状态在死亡率方面没有差异。然而，我们发现25-59岁的寡妇和鳏夫的死亡风险高于已婚人士。尽管印度寡妇经历了独特的脆弱性，但我们发现，相对于25-59岁的已婚人士，寡妇和鳏夫的死亡率升高程度相似。在这个年龄组中，我们还记录了暴露于保守和不太平等的性别规范的寡妇死亡率更高。这些发现表明，尽管印度与其他国家相似，寡妇和鳏夫的死亡率都很高，但不平等的性别规范仍然影响着印度寡妇的生活机会。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Demography DEMOGRAPHY-

CiteScore

5.90

自引率

2.90%

发文量

期刊介绍： Since its founding in 1964, the journal Demography has mirrored the vitality, diversity, high intellectual standard and wide impact of the field on which it reports. Demography presents the highest quality original research of scholars in a broad range of disciplines, including anthropology, biology, economics, geography, history, psychology, public health, sociology, and statistics. The journal encompasses a wide variety of methodological approaches to population research. Its geographic focus is global, with articles addressing demographic matters from around the planet. Its temporal scope is broad, as represented by research that explores demographic phenomena spanning the ages from the past to the present, and reaching toward the future. Authors whose work is published in Demography benefit from the wide audience of population scientists their research will reach. Also in 2011 Demography remains the most cited journal among population studies and demographic periodicals. Published bimonthly, Demography is the flagship journal of the Population Association of America, reaching the membership of one of the largest professional demographic associations in the world.