Influence of migration status and intergenerational educational mobility on non-communicable disease multimorbidity among people aged 45 and above in India

Migration and health are closely intertwined and can significantly impact the health of individuals. Social mobility is indicated as moving from a lower to a higher social status. Migration is seen as a mechanism for improving intergenerational social mobility. Intergenerational educational mobility is a form of social mobility, measured by the difference in children’s schooling compared to their parents’ educational attainments. Thus, migrant status and intergenerational educational mobility interact with each other and have a direct and indirect impact on an individual’s health status. This study aims to understand the effects of migration and intergenerational educational mobility on multimorbidity status. Multimorbidity was the primary outcome, and the main independent variables were migrant status and intergenerational educational mobility. We used bivariate and multivariable analysis to assess the effects of independent variables on multimorbidity status using the Longitudinal Ageing Study in India Wave 1 data. The interaction between migration and intergenerational educational mobility reveals that male migrants who have experienced downward mobility had a higher likelihood of having multimorbidity (OR: 2.30) compared to non-migrants with downward mobility. The likelihood of multimorbidity was higher for women than it was for men. Non-migrant women with no educational mobility demonstrated a higher probability of multimorbidity than migrant women.