Inpatient healthcare utilization among formerly married adults in India: Evidence from the Longitudinal Ageing Study in India (LASI-1)

India has been on the brink of rapid socio-economic changes and these changes have manifested themselves through improvements in health and overall living standards of the general population. Although several health strategies and policies have addressed the equitable distribution of health care in India, not many studies have been undertaken on this topic, especially among formerly married older adults. The aim of this paper is to evaluate income related-inequalities in healthcare utilization among formerly married older population in India. This study utilizes individual level data from the first wave of the Longitudinal Ageing Study in India. Logistic regression was employed to examine the effect of the socio-economic characteristics on the health seeking behavior of the formerly married older adult population. The magnitude of socio-economic inequity in health care utilization was quantified using Wagstaff decomposition analysis. The regression results revealed that with higher levels of education, the odds of getting inpatient health care utilization decreased. For instance, the health care utilization was 32 % less among individuals with 10+ years of schooling than those who did not have any formal level of education [OR: 0.68; 95 % C.I.:0.52–0.88]. The odds of inpatient health care utilization was higher among those who had morbidity [one morbidity, OR:1.98; 95 % C.I.:1.68–2.36 & multimorbidity OR: 2.68; 95 % C.I.:2.25–3.20]. Additionally, presence of multi-morbidity (83 %) and geographical regions (50 %) were two of the largest contributors to inequality in healthcare utilization. Findings from the current study point towards the need for having improved social security systems in place to protect the households from distress financing and reducing inequalities.