Risk Factors of Social Exclusion Among Older Persons: Evidence from a Cross-Sectional Survey

The study examines the exclusion of older people using a multidimensional approach to understand the different domains of exclusion. Particularly, it evaluates the risk factors of old-age social exclusion, focusing on the level of exclusion across three domains such as social relations, economic and material resources, and social activities, as well as the total exclusion score. Using secondary data from the Building Knowledge Base on Population Ageing in India (BKPAI) survey, the study employed bivariate descriptive and multinomial logistic regression models to assess the factors that affect social exclusion for all three domains, as well as the total exclusion score. Results for the total social exclusion score reveal that older people in their later ages, women, from rural areas, without schooling, living alone, without work, and having poor physical health, experienced a severe risk of exclusion. Notably, older people at later ages (70+) from rural areas without schooling experienced both moderate and severe exclusion in all the domains, as well as in the total exclusion score. While analysing exclusion across all three domains, the study found that older people were most at risk of exclusion in the domains of economic and material resources, followed by the domain of social relations. Thus, ageing policies should consider these micro-level risk factors associated with these two domains to combat the exclusion and improve their quality of life.