A reformulation and assessment of the Global AgeWatch Index: Inclusion of a gender-based domain

The Global AgeWatch Index (GAWI) is a measure that ranks countries according to the wellbeing of their older adults. The GAWI was constructed using four domains of wellbeing excluding a gender inequality domain. This research aimed to include the domain of gender equality in the GAWI and produce a reformulated index (rGAWI) so that the resulting ranking of countries based on the new indices can be compared with that observed for the original GAWI. This cross-sectional study utilized publicly available data on female labour force participation, total fertility rate and age at first marriage to create a new domain of gender inequality. The new domain was added to the original four GAWI domains to generate the rGAWI. The inclusion of the gender inequality domain into GAWI resulted in changes in the rankings of 87.5% of the countries and countries with lower gender inequality scores had poor reformulated indices of wellbeing.