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Socio-economic determinants of health and physical fitness in southern Ethiopia

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  • Kimhi, Ayal

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the dependence of health and physical fitness indicators on the socio-economic situation of rural families in Southern Ethiopia, with particular emphasis on the role of inequality. The literature shows mixed results about the effect of inequality on health, and this paper contributes in several ways: it compares the results of objective and subjective health measures, it distinguishes between wealth inequality and nutrition inequality, and it evaluates the impact of nutrition inequality both at the village level and at the household level. The subjective health measures are morbidity (the number of days respondents were ill during the last month) and physical fitness (their ability to walk distances, carry heavy loads, and work in the field). The objective health measure is Body Mass Index (BMI). We found that many effects of explanatory variables were significant in some of the equations but not in all of them. In some cases we even obtained contradictory significant effects. This emphasizes the need not to rely on a single health measure. The results indicate that literacy is negatively associated with morbidity. Per-capita wealth is positively associated with BMI. Availability of satisfactory health facilities is associated positively with physical fitness and negatively with morbidity. Per-capita wealth inequality is associated positively with morbidity and negatively with BMI. Within-household nutrition inequality seems to have a complex association with health: the association is negative with BMI and positive with physical fitness, but only for household members whose nutritional status is above the household mean. While these results should be examined more carefully with regard to possible endogeneity of some of the determinants, they do indicate several variables with a positive association with health and physical fitness. These include literacy, wealth and satisfactory health facilities. The role of inequality
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  • Kimhi, Ayal, 2003. "Socio-economic determinants of health and physical fitness in southern Ethiopia," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 1(1), pages 55-75, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ehbiol:v:1:y:2003:i:1:p:55-75
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    1. Qiu, Tian, 2007. "The Adjusted Measure of Body Mass Index for the Chinese and its Impact on Health," MPRA Paper 25211, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 2009.
    2. Darshan Zala, 2013. "Challenging The Spirit Level: Is There Really a Relationship between Inequality and Obesity?," Economic Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(2), pages 232-245, June.
    3. Lisa Cameron & Jenny Williams, 2009. "Is the relationship between socioeconomic status and health stronger for older children in developing countries?," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 46(2), pages 303-324, May.
    4. John Cranfield & Kris Inwood & Les Oxley & Evan Roberts, 2017. "Long-Run Changes in the Body Mass Index of Adults in Three Food-Abundant Settler Societies: Australia, Canada and New Zealand," Working Papers in Economics 17/15, University of Waikato.
    5. Juliet Elu & Gregory Price, 2013. "Ethnicity as a Barrier to Childhood and Adolescent Health Capital in Tanzania: Evidence from the Wage-Height Relationship," African Development Review, African Development Bank, vol. 25(1), pages 1-13.
    6. Bethelhem Debela & Gerald Shively & Stein Holden, 2015. "Does Ethiopia’s Productive Safety Net Program improve child nutrition?," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 7(6), pages 1273-1289, December.
    7. Faisal Abbas & Haroon Sarwar Awan, 2018. "What Determines Health Status of Population in Pakistan?," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 139(1), pages 1-23, August.

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