Gender Disparity in Health and Food Expenditure in India among Elderly

Table 2

Household expenditure and gender differences on different health items among the elderly at two points of time (1999-2000 and 2007-2008).

Health items	Item-wise household expenditure for healthcare (percent)		Item-wise share of household expenditure for elderly healthcare (percent)		Gender differences in item-wise expenditure for elderly healthcare (male-female ratio)
	1999-2000	2007-2008	1999-2000	2007-2008	1999-2000	2007-2008
Medicine	73.4	77.7	25.3	25.1	13.3	5.3
X-ray, ECG, pathological test, and so forth	5.9	5.4	7.2	31.4	2.6	2.8
Doctor/surgeon’s fee	13.4	10.8	46.0	20.6	28.6	8.5
Hospital and nursing home charges	3.2	0.7	35.7	24.1	16.8	10.6
Other medical expenses	4.1	5.3	5.5	26.1	25.6	21.1