Characterizing the Relationship between Social Determinants and Environmental Risks to Health in Rural Gujarat, India
Abstract
Socioeconomic status (SES) has been identified as the fundamental cause of health disparities impacting health outcomes and access to healthcare. About 24% of the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) was attributed to modifiable environmental risk factors such as pollution of water, sanitation and air. These environmental health (EH) problems are more vulnerable in developing countries than in developed countries because of a lack of regulations and primitive systems for environmental control. The purpose of this study is to analyze the relationship between SES and EH conditions in rural villages in Gujarat, India. This study represents a secondary analysis using data collected through the SEVAK project. Descriptive statistics were used to understand the basic characteristics of the respondents and inferential statistics were used to examine the relationship between SES (education and employment) and EH (toilet, drinking water, cooking fuel) by calculating the chi-square value, the Spearman Rank Coefficient (SRC), and the Odds Ratio (OR). A model was developed to predict the EH conditions according to the level of SES using logistic regression. A total of 36,809 individuals completed the interviews between December 2010 and October 2016. Gender distribution was 51.7% for males and 48.3% for females. The vast majority of males (75.9%) were self-employed and the majority of females (80.8%) were homemakers. The proportion of people who had treated water was 76.2% for males and 74.7% for females. The proportion of people who own a toilet was 44.1% for males and 43.7% for females. 80.9% for males and 71.6% for female used the improved cooking fuel. Among the EH conditions, possession of the toilet was found to be most affected by individual SES (p-value <0.01, SRC = 0.256). Interaction analysis indicated college education and employment for wages created the greatest synergy.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Apr 06, 2017
- Accession Number
- AD1064095
Entities
People
- Ryan Jung
Organizations
- Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences