Successful Ageing and Poverty: The case of Peru

Abstract

This study investigated the determinants of Successful Ageing (SA) in a sample of 4,151 Peruvians aged between 65 and 80 and living in poverty. The data correspond to the ESBAM survey, which is the baseline to evaluate the non-contributory public pension program Pension 65. A key contribution of this study is to combine the conceptual appealing of Successful Ageing to measure well-being in old-age with the multidimensional poverty counting approach developed in the economic literature. This setting allows for moving beyond the dichotomy of the SA literature (success or usual ageing) and take advantage of the full distribution of success along the set of dimensions of well-being. Nine indicators of SA have been used to assess the dimensions of physical health, functioning, cognition, emotional health, and life satisfaction. The variables associated with a higher number of satisfied indicators were being a male, younger, literate, working, low food insecurity, good nutritional status, normal blood pressure, absence of disabilities, not smoking, empowerment, good self-esteem, absence of mental disability, and less frequent contact with a social network. From a policy perspective, the results of this study report a remarkably stable effect of three variables affecting SA that can be relatively easy to measure, monitor and affect by public intervention. These variables are food security, nutrition quality, and self-esteem.

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