Data:
We have used the data from the first wave of longitudinal ageing study of India (LASI), which has a carried out for all 35 states (exclude Sikkim) and union territories (UTs) of elderly aged 45 years and above. The first wave of LASI took place in 2016-17 with a national sample of 72,250 older adults aged 45 and above, including 31,464 elderly age 60 and above and 6,749 oldest-old persons age 75 and above. However, our study is concerned with 31,464 elderlies from 60 years and above.
LASI is India’s first-ever survey which provides comprehensive information on demographics, household economic status, chronic health conditions, symptom-based health conditions, functional health, mental health (cognition and depression), biomarkers, health insurance and healthcare utilization, family and social networks, social welfare programmes, work and employment, retirement, satisfaction, and life expectations. The survey has well-developed tools to evaluate the effect of changing policies on the health outcomes among older adults in India
LASI wave one was supported by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), the Government of India, the National Institute on Aging (NIA), and the United Nations Population Fund, India (UNFPA). LASI is a collaborative study of three nodal agencies: International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS), Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health (HSPH), and University of Southern California (USC) and several other national and international institutions.
The LASI has used a multistage stratified area probability cluster sampling to achieve a nationally representative sample of older adults. This stage sampling design has adopted rural areas and a four-stage sampling design for urban areas across the states and UTs. In the first stage of sampling, primary sampling units (PSUs) were selected, which were Tehsils and Talukas. In the second stage, villages and wards were selected for rural and urban areas respectively in selected PSUs. The third stage involved selection of households in rural areas and census enumeration blocks (CEBs) in urban areas. In the fourth stage, households were selected from CEBs in urban areas [14].
Study variables
Outcome variables
The outcome variable for this study is cognition. In addition that, working memory (word recall and computational) is considered a proxy measure of cognition [23]. Further, the word recall problem has been measured by visualizing the list where three sets of words as list1, list2 and list3 have been portrayed, and the answer has recorded in a maximum sum of ten. Furthermore, we have categorized word recall problem into either ‘yes’ or ‘no’. Similarly, the computational problem has been assessed based on two numerical questions asked in the survey. Further, the answer has recorded either ‘correct’ or ‘incorrect’ and recoded in ‘yes’ and ‘no’.
Response variables
The response variables for this study are food insecurity (severe, moderate and secure); gender (male and female); age (60-69 and 70 years and above); marital status (currently married, never married, Divorced/Separated/Deserted/Widowhood), education (No education, below primary, primary, secondary, and higher); living arrangements (living alone, with spouse and with others); place of residence (rural and urban); wealth index (poorest, poorer, middle, richer and richest); currently working (yes and no); self-rated health (poor and good; physical activity (yes and no); tobacco use (no and yes); ADL disability (severe, moderate and no disability), and IADL disability (severe, moderate and no disability). Food security has been measured by asking five questions as during the last 12 months, first, did you ever reduce the size of your meal? Second, did you eat enough food of your choice? Third, were you hungry but didn’t eat because there was not enough food in your household? Forth, did you ever not eat for a whole day because there was not enough food in your household? And fifth, do you think you have lost weight in the last 12 months because there was not enough food in your household? The responses have been recorded in binary form as ‘yes’ and ‘no’. Furthermore, food security has been constructed based on previous studies [24–26]. Again, Activities of daily living (ADL) and Instrumental activities of daily living (IADL) disability constructed from five (bathing, dressing, mobility, feeding, and toileting) and seven (preparing a hot meal (cooking and serving), shopping for groceries, making telephone calls, taking medications, doing work around the house or garden, managing money, such as paying bills and keeping track of expenses and getting around or finding an address in an unfamiliar place) activities. Both the ADL and IADL disability was categorized into the three categories as “severe”, “moderate”, and “no disability” based on the scale given in previous studies [27, 28].
Statistical measures
Descriptive analyses were used to understand the prevalence of word recall and computational problem by food security and some selected sociodemographic parameters. To estimate the odds ratio, binary logistic regression was performed to determine the adjusted association between cognition problems and food security and sociodemographic parameters. The equation of binary logistic regression can be written as follow:
Where p is the probability, β0 is the intercept, β1, β2, β3 to βK are the coefficients and x1,x2 to xk are the independent variables. All the analyses have been performed using STATA version 16, and results are reported at 5% level of significance.