Problem
In contrast to developed and developing countries (including Mexico as a whole) where older women outlive and outnumber older men, Chiapas, Mexico is unusual in having an elder population (aged 50+) in which women are outlived and outnumbered by men. I hypothesize that, compared to elder Chiapanecan men and their national female cohort, elder Chiapanecan women face more morbidity, receive less and/or poorer quality care, and shoulder more elder care responsibility, resulting in their precarious health status. Elder care research is urgent in Mexico – especially in the long-marginalized state of Chiapas – given rapid demographic and epidemiological transition; widespread health disparity; an inefficient and non-universal health care system; low living standards and pronounced economic inequality; structural poverty; a fragile sociopolitical context; and rapidly evolving notions of gender- and generation-based entitlement.

Objective
Harness gender-sensitive medical anthropology to understand perceptions and experiences of health and health care among older adults in Comitán, Chiapas, Mexico to facilitate locally-initiated efforts promoting elder health via community-congruent intervention.

Methods
Original fieldwork in Comitan, Chiapas, involving a multiple actors via a variety of participatory methods:
1. Inter-institutional elder health conference
2. Elder health survey
3. Interviews with elders and (in)formal care providers
4. Strategic meeting
5. Independent working group
6. Ongoing, iterative collaboration between researcher and working group