The Rural Aged and their Health: A Poverty-Health Viewpoint
Received Date: Nov 11, 2013 / Accepted Date: Nov 27, 2013 / Published Date: Nov 30, 2013
Abstract
Introduction: In Jamaica, rural poverty is twice that of urban poverty with about 50 percentage points of elderly residing in rural zones. Poverty is not only a measure of the economic reality; it is also a critical driver of the health challenge being experienced by this vulnerable group.
Objectives: The present study aims to 1) evaluate health of rural elderly, 2) determine factors that influence selfrated health status of the rural aged, 3) determine factors of self-reported illness among rural aged in Jamaica, and 4) examine the changing patterns of diseases of the rural aged Jamaicans over a 5-year period.
Methods: This paper utilizes a cross sectional probability survey design from the Jamaica Survey of Living Conditions (JSLC) dataset. JSLC is a modification of the World Bank Living Standard Survey. Two of the JSLC were used for this research, 2002 and 2007. This research extracted rural aged (60+ year olds) from each year, 2,010 and 404 respectively. Descriptive statistics provide pertinent information on the socio-demographics characteristics of the sampled respondents. Logistic regressions were used to established health models, and a p value <5% was used to determine statistical significance.
Findings: In 2002, 23.2% of rural elderly were below the poverty line. This rose by 6.5% in 2007; wherein at least 66% sought medical care; 27.3% had poor self-rated health status, and self-reported illness was 39.4% in 2002 and this rose by 14.0% in 2007 over 2002. Of those who reported an illness, 75.4% had chronic conditions with 44.0% had hypertension.
Conclusion: The findings which emerged from
Keywords: Chronic illness; Elderly; Epidemiology; Developing nation; Health conditions; Health statistics; Self-rated health status; Poverty; Rural aged
Citation: Bourne PA, Solan I, Sharpe-Pryce C, Campbell-Smith J, Francis C (2013) The Rural Aged and their Health: A Poverty-Health Viewpoint. Epidemiol 4: 140. Doi: 10.4172/2161-1165.1000140
Copyright: © 2013 Bourne PA, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
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