The Role of Pension Benefits in Food Consumption Disparities and Nutrition Inadequacy Among the Elderly in Indonesia

This study explores the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), explicitly addressing poverty and malnutrition in the elderly through social security reform in Indonesia. Although previous research has linked hunger and poverty to child stunting, there is a significant gap and disparity in addressing malnutrition among the elderly. Analysing a sub-sample from the March 2020 National Socioeconomic Survey with 62,636 household-level observations, this research employs quantile regression to handle heteroskedasticity. These findings indicate that elderly individuals receiving pension benefits enjoy significantly greater protection against malnutrition. This observation closely aligns with the primary aim of the first SDG, which sought to eliminate hunger and malnutrition nationwide. This association emphasises the importance of strengthening income security as a practical and effective approach to combat malnutrition in the elderly population. These findings suggest targeted assistance for vulnerable elderly people such as single women aged ≥60 years.