Prevalence, Diagnosis, and Treatment of Chronic Non-Communicable Diseases among Older Adults in Six Low- and Middle-Income Countries: Cross-Sectional Evidence from SAGE Wave 1

Perianayagam Arokiasamy, International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS)
Uttamacharya, International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS)
Elizabeth Thiele, Vassar College
Somnath Chatterji, World Health Organization (WHO)

In this paper, we investigate population differences in self-report versus symptom based/measured diagnoses for chronic conditions using cross-cultural data drawn from the WHO Study on global AGEing and adult health (SAGE) Wave 1. We examine the patterns and prevalence of six chronic conditions in six low- and middle-income countries (China, Ghana, India, Mexico, Russian Federation, and South Africa). We used logit models to estimate socioeconomic and demographic determinants of undiagnosed and untreated morbidity. In all countries, a higher percentage of symptom based/measured cases was observed compared to self-reported cases of angina. Undiagnosed prevalence rates of hypertensions were consistently high across all six SAGE countries. Higher education and higher wealth status significantly decreased the odds of exhibiting an undiagnosed condition and concomitantly increased the odds of receiving treatment. These cross-sectional analyses confirm the substantial and growing burden of chronic diseases in SAGE countries.