Population Ageing and Women's Health: A Cross-Country Comparative Study of Experiences from Select Asian countries.

Improvements in health care provision and medical advancements with increasing average life expectancies, alongside declining fertility rates, is resulting in global shifts to population ageing. Though not uniform, these 'new demographic realities' seen through the stages of the demographic transitions model mean that addressing the needs of middle- and older-age adults in terms of their physical and mental health, alongside social and economic wellbeing, is a growing priority for scholars and policymakers. However, understanding women's distinctive health and wellbeing challenges in this area remains a key research gap with most research taking a gender-neutral approach. For example, there is need to consider the impacts of life course events including the menopause on women's health and wellbeing in later life, with current research mostly treating women almost exclusively as reproductive beings. As a result of higher life expectancies, women face both the rising burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) linked to age- and lifestyle- factors, alongside the brunt of increasing pressures on health and social care services. Meanwhile, transformations in traditional family and community support structures are also disproportionately affecting older age women. Asian countries are at different points in the demographic transition: with countries such as Japan and South Korea facing the 'demographic cliff', Malaysia and Indonesia transitioning to low mortality and falling birth rates, and India and China where population growth and ageing are happening concurrently albeit at different rates. These 6 examples provide snapshots of the varied consequences of population ageing and demographic transitions on women's health and wellbeing.

This thesis on utilises a life course approach to examine under-explored dimensions of transformations in women's health and wellbeing in the context of population ageing and debates over realising ambitions of creating healthy ageing. Using advanced quantitative research methods and econometric techniques, this thesis will use longitudinal data from the Gateway to Global Ageing from select Asian countries to provide a robust and in-depth view of how population ageing is impacting women across Asian societies. It will use data from 6 Asian countries at the forefront of global population growth and ageing trends including India (the Longitudinal Ageing Study in India, LASI); China (the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study, CHARLS); Malaysia (the Malaysian Ageing and Retirement Survey, MARS); Indonesia (the Indonesian Family Life Survey, IFLS); South Korea (the Korean Longitudinal Study of Ageing, KLoSA); and Japan (the Japanese Study of Ageing and Retirement, JSTAR). It will examine issues such as the role of biomarkers of ageing as predictors of older age physical and mental health and wellbeing; the significance and long- term implications of menopausal transitions; the impact of life course events; and how access to health and health system functioning affects women's health and wellbeing in later life. This is essential to understand how the lived experience of women impacts across the life course impacts on their health experiences in older age. Thus, this innovative thesis aims to provide an evidence-based analysis for informed research and policy development on population ageing towards improving women's health and wellbeing outcomes.