Disability Prevalence and Socio-economic Conditions Among the Elderly: Comparative Analysis Between Argentina and Mexico

Abstract

The main objective of this study is to compare the prevalence of disabilities, measured using Basic Activities of Daily Living (ADL), of people aged 60 and over in Argentina and Mexico and to assess the extent to which prevalence differentials are associated with socio-economic composition of the populations. The sources of microdata used are: The National Survey on Quality of Life of Older Adults (ENCAVIAM) conducted in Argentina in 2012 (INDEC, 2014), the Mexican Health and Aging Study (ENASEM-MHAS) of 2015 and microdata from the Survey on Health, Well-being and Aging study in Latin America and the Caribbean, sabe (2000). The results suggest that a large share of the differences in the prevalence of disability between the two countries is likely to be due to the differences in composition by economic condition, supporting the results observed in the World Report on Aging and Health of the World Health Organization