Differentials in private and public healthcare service utilization in later life: do gender and marital status have any association?

The present study investigates whether the differentials in private and public inpatient healthcare utilization are associated with marital status for men and women aged 60 years and above in India. Binary logistic regression was applied to examine the association of private and public inpatient healthcare utilization with the marital status of the elderly. The study found that widowed men and women generally used public healthcare for hospitalization, while married men and women preferred private healthcare. Our findings also indicated that private inpatient health services expenditure was higher for married elderly than widowed elderly. After controlling all covariates, widowhood was significantly associated with higher use of public healthcare services for women but not for men. India's current health care policy and program may be required to focus on improving the infrastructure quality of current public healthcare systems. It also needs to be favorable for vulnerable sections of society, especially widowed women, to avail better treatment at an affordable cost.