IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v217y2018icp18-30.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Richer, wiser and in better health? The socioeconomic gradient in hypertension prevalence, unawareness and control in South Africa

Author

Listed:
  • Thomas, Ranjeeta
  • Burger, Ronelle
  • Hauck, Katharina

Abstract

The socioeconomic gradient in chronic conditions is clear in the poorest and wealthiest of countries, but extant evidence on this relationship in low- and middle-income countries is inconclusive. We use data gathered between 2008 and 2012 from a nationally representative sample of over 10,000 South African adults, and objective health measures to analyse the differential effects of education, income and other factors on the prevalence of hypertension, individuals' awareness and control of hypertensive status. Prevalence of hypertension is high at 38% among women and 34% among men. 59% of hypertensive individuals are unaware of their status. We find prevalence and unawareness of hypertension are a public health concern across all income groups in South Africa. Higher income is however associated with effective control amongst men. Completing secondary education is associated with 7 mmHg lower blood pressure only in a small sub-group of women but is associated with 22 percentage point higher likelihood of effective hypertension control amongst women. We conclude that poorer and less educated individuals are particularly at high risk of cardiovascular disease in South Africa.

Suggested Citation

  • Thomas, Ranjeeta & Burger, Ronelle & Hauck, Katharina, 2018. "Richer, wiser and in better health? The socioeconomic gradient in hypertension prevalence, unawareness and control in South Africa," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 217(C), pages 18-30.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:217:y:2018:i:c:p:18-30
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2018.09.038
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953618305288
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.socscimed.2018.09.038?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. repec:pri:rpdevs:case_leroux_menendez_medical_compliance_and_income_health_gradients_aerpp is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Johnston, David W. & Propper, Carol & Shields, Michael A., 2009. "Comparing subjective and objective measures of health: Evidence from hypertension for the income/health gradient," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 540-552, May.
    3. Deb, Partha & Trivedi, Pravin K., 2002. "The structure of demand for health care: latent class versus two-part models," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 21(4), pages 601-625, July.
    4. Deb, Partha & Gallo, William T. & Ayyagari, Padmaja & Fletcher, Jason M. & Sindelar, Jody L., 2011. "The effect of job loss on overweight and drinking," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(2), pages 317-327, March.
    5. Anne Case & Ingrid Le Roux & Alicia Menendez, 2004. "Medical Compliance and Income-Health Gradients," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 94(2), pages 331-335, May.
    6. Zhao, Meng & Konishi, Yoshifumi & Glewwe, Paul, 2013. "Does information on health status lead to a healthier lifestyle? Evidence from China on the effect of hypertension diagnosis on food consumption," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(2), pages 367-385.
    7. repec:pri:cheawb:case_medicalcompliance.pdf is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Pinka Chatterji & Heesoo Joo & Kajal Lahiri, 2012. "Beware Of Being Unaware: Racial/Ethnic Disparities In Chronic Illness In The Usa," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 21(9), pages 1040-1060, September.
    9. repec:pri:rpdevs:case_medicalcompliance is not listed on IDEAS
    10. Sukumar Vellakkal & S V Subramanian & Christopher Millett & Sanjay Basu & David Stuckler & Shah Ebrahim, 2013. "Socioeconomic Inequalities in Non-Communicable Diseases Prevalence in India: Disparities between Self-Reported Diagnoses and Standardized Measures," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(7), pages 1-12, July.
    11. repec:pri:rpdevs:case_medicalcompliance.pdf is not listed on IDEAS
    12. Lei, Xiaoyan & Yin, Nina & Zhao, Yaohui, 2012. "Socioeconomic status and chronic diseases: The case of hypertension in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 23(1), pages 105-121.
    13. Van de Ven, Wynand P. M. M. & Van Praag, Bernard M. S., 1981. "The demand for deductibles in private health insurance : A probit model with sample selection," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 17(2), pages 229-252, November.
    14. repec:pri:cheawb:case_medicalcompliance is not listed on IDEAS
    15. Firman Witoelar & John Strauss & Bondan Sikoki, 2009. "Socioeconomic Success and Health in Later Life Evidence from the Indonesia Family Life Survey," Working Papers 704, RAND Corporation.
    16. Susan Horton & Hellen Gelband & Dean Jamison & Carol Levin & Rachel Nugent & David Watkins, 2017. "Ranking 93 health interventions for low- and middle-income countries by cost-effectiveness," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(8), pages 1-12, August.
    17. Firman Witoelar & John Strauss & Bondan Sikoki, 2009. "Socioeconomic Success and Health in Later Life Evidence from the Indonesia Family Life Survey," Working Papers WR-704, RAND Corporation.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Bonsang, Eric & Caroli, Eve & Garrouste, Clémentine, 2021. "Gender heterogeneity in self-reported hypertension," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 43(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Lei, Xiaoyan & Yin, Nina & Zhao, Yaohui, 2010. "SES Health Gradients during the Epidemiological Transition: The Case of China," IZA Discussion Papers 4914, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Bonsang, Eric & Caroli, Eve & Garrouste, Clémentine, 2021. "Gender heterogeneity in self-reported hypertension," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 43(C).
    3. Nicolas R. Ziebarth, 2018. "Social Insurance and Health," Contributions to Economic Analysis, in: Health Econometrics, volume 127, pages 57-84, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    4. Lei, Xiaoyan & Yin, Nina & Zhao, Yaohui, 2012. "Socioeconomic status and chronic diseases: The case of hypertension in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 23(1), pages 105-121.
    5. Ilke Onur & Malathi Velamuri, 2018. "The gap between self-reported and objective measures of disease status in India," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(8), pages 1-18, August.
    6. Xiaoyan Lei & Nina Yin & Yaohui Zhao, 2010. "SES Health Gradients during the Epidemiological Transition : The Case of China," Development Economics Working Papers 22719, East Asian Bureau of Economic Research.
    7. repec:ran:wpaper:774 is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Yangyang Sun & Daxin Dong & Yulian Ding, 2021. "The Impact of Dietary Knowledge on Health: Evidence from the China Health and Nutrition Survey," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(7), pages 1-17, April.
    9. Strauss, John & Lei, Xiaoyan & Park, Albert & Shen, Yan & Smith, James P. & Yang, Zhe & Zhao, Yaohui, 2010. "Health Outcomes and Socio-Economic Status among the Elderly in China: Evidence from the CHARLS Pilot," IZA Discussion Papers 5152, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    10. Theresa Thompson Chaudhry & Maha Khan & Azka Sarosh Mir, 2020. "Gender Gaps in Child Nutritional Status in Punjab, Pakistan," The Pakistan Development Review, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, vol. 59(2), pages 275-300.
    11. Durand, Robert B. & Greene, William H. & Harris, Mark N. & Khoo, Joye, 2022. "Heterogeneity in speed of adjustment using finite mixture models," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 107(C).
    12. Davillas, Apostolos & Pudney, Stephen, 2020. "Biomarkers as precursors of disability," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 36(C).
    13. Jinkook Lee & McGovern, Mark E. & David E. Bloom & P. Arokiasamy & Arun Risbud & Jennifer O?Brien & Varsha Kale & Peifeng Hu, 2015. "Education, Gender, and State-Level Gradients in the Health of Older Indians: Evidence from Biomarker Data," Working Paper 228841, Harvard University OpenScholar.
    14. Lee, Jinkook & McGovern, Mark E. & Bloom, David E. & Arokiasamy, P. & Risbud, Arun & O’Brien, Jennifer & Kale, Varsha & Hu, Peifeng, 2015. "Education, gender, and state-level disparities in the health of older Indians: Evidence from biomarker data," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 19(C), pages 145-156.
    15. Helmut Farbmacher & Peter Ihle & Ingrid Schubert & Joachim Winter & Amelie Wuppermann, 2017. "Heterogeneous Effects of a Nonlinear Price Schedule for Outpatient Care," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(10), pages 1234-1248, October.
    16. Elizabeth Frankenberg & Jessica Y. Ho & Duncan Thomas, 2015. "Biological Health Risks and Economic Development," NBER Working Papers 21277, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    17. Md Nazmul Ahsan & Inas Rashad Kelly, 2018. "Earnings Gaps for Conspicuous Characteristics: Evidence from Indonesia," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 85(1), pages 121-141, July.
    18. Sarah Brown & William Greene & Mark Harris, 2020. "A novel approach to latent class modelling: identifying the various types of body mass index individuals," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 183(3), pages 983-1004, June.
    19. Sunday Azagba & Mesbah Sharaf, 2011. "The effect of job stress on smoking and alcohol consumption," Health Economics Review, Springer, vol. 1(1), pages 1-14, December.
    20. Kim, Younoh & Sikoki, Bondan & Strauss, John & Witoelar, Firman, 2015. "Intergenerational correlations of health among older adults: Empirical evidence from Indonesia," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 6(C), pages 44-56.
    21. Yiyue Huangfu & Jenna Nobles, 2022. "Intergenerational support during the rise of mobile telecommunication in Indonesia," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 46(36), pages 1065-1108.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:217:y:2018:i:c:p:18-30. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.