Research project A mixed methods study of precarity and resilience among aging populations in India and Sweden.
Population ageing challenges welfare and health systems globally, underscoring the importance of promoting healthy and successful aging. Cognitive function is crucial for overall health and well-being of older adults. Highlighted during the COVID-19 pandemic, social frailty is a significant risk factor for cognitive decline. This interdisciplinary mixed-methods project aims to investigate social frailty in both Sweden and India – countries with two uniquely aging populations embedded in varying social, economic, cultural, and Covid-19 response environments.
To generate timely-relevant, comprehensive, and systematic understanding, this interdisciplinary mixed-methods project aims to investigate the concept of ‘social frailty’ and its cognitive consequences in both Sweden and India – countries which present two uniquely aging populations embedded in varying social, economic, cultural, and Covid-19 response environments.
Our objectives are to:
- understand the phenomenon of social frailty and to assess its association with a wider battery of cognitive health outcomes;
- examine how multiple material need insecurities and wider macro-level contexts intersect and affect the above association; and to
- explore the lived experiences of such precarious life worlds; discover necessary and sufficient causal conditions for older adults’ resilience against social frailty.
We utilize data from two nationally representative surveys: the Swedish part of The Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) and the Longitudinal Aging Study in India (LASI), both covering 2017 – 2022/23, enabling distinct pre-, during-, and post-pandemic perspectives. We will complement analyses with aggregated data at Swedish region and Indian state level. Qualitative analyses will be based on focus group discussion and interview data.
The project brings together a multidisciplinary team of 10 Swedish and Indian researchers from four leading institutions in the areas of public health and aging research. This project aims to produce policy- and practice-relevant results which can inform social interventions to support cognition in old age, the global aging agenda, and sustainable development.
