Investigating the relationship between material deprivation and household context among older people in Italy

A large body of literature has delved into socioeconomic inequalities, emphasizing the multidimensional nature of deprivation. However, previous research has only considered deprivation in additive terms and has not adequately combined the variety and intensity of different deprivation indicators. Using data from the 2018 Multipurpose Survey on Households, Aspects of Daily Life (Italian National Institute of Statistics), we conducted a Latent Class Analysis to identify distinct deprivation profiles based on gradual patterns of hardship. This method allows for a better understanding of the interplay between varying degrees of severity across different deprivation indicators. In a second step, probit regression analyses were used to examine the impact of diverse living arrangements on latent deprivation classes among older individuals. Our findings reveal that older people living with others experience higher levels of housing deprivation but lower overall material deprivation than those living alone. Furthermore, living with family members, whether a spouse or descendants, is associated with higher levels of housing deprivation than cohabiting with strangers, while the reverse is true for overall material deprivation. These results underscore the need for further research to explore the varying degrees of deprivation across subpopulations, highlighting the importance of nuanced investigations in this field.