Inequalities Among Older People: Exploring Differences in Deprivation Patterns.

In the last twenty years, a large body of literature has explored socio-economic inequalities focusing on the fuzzy nature of deprivation. From a meth-odological point of view, numerous approaches have been used to measure dif-ferences in the concept of deprivation between different target groups. However, despite the relevance of this issue, no previous research has evaluated the attrib-utes resulting from the combination of variety and intensity of different depriva-tion indicators among the older population within the Italian context. In this ex-ploratory study, using data from the 2018 Italian Multipurpose Survey on House-holds, through Latent Class Analysis we identify three distinct profiles of depri-vation based on different degrees of hardship related to specific deprivation indi-cators. This innovative approach allows us to better understand the specific in-terplay between varying degrees of severity across different deprivation items. Our results show that food deprivation exhibit a more uniform distribution within the older population. In contrast, housing and material deprivation are more dis-tinctly characterized, particularly among the population over 75, those living in the Southern Italy, and families with traditional structures. This calls for further research in this direction, underscoring the need for nuanced investigations that consider the diverse forms of deprivation across subpopulations.