| Socioeconomic disparities in health, nutrition, and population in Bangladesh: Do education and exposure to media reduce it? |
| Authors: |
Rahman, M.S. |
| Source: |
Pakistan Journal of Nutrition, Vol 6, Num 3, Page: 286-293 |
| Topic(s): |
Education
Health equity
Service utilization
|
| Country: |
Asia
Bangladesh
|
| Published: |
MAR 2007 |
| Abstract: |
The focus of the paper is to examine socioeconomic disparities in health, nutrition, and population
in Bangladesh and to investigate whether education and media exposure would reduce the disparities. Data
on health status and health services utilization, extracted from the 2004 Bangladesh Demographic and
Health Survey, have been analyzed and presented graphically to highlight the inequalities that exist among
different socioeconomic groups. Poor-rich (PR) ratio and concentration index (CI) have been calculated to
observe the extent of inequalities. In an attempt to understand whether education of women and exposure
to media modifies the poor-rich disparities, CI and PR ratio have also been calculated for each category of
education and media exposure. Again, relative ratios (RR) and ‘difference in CIs’ have been calculated for
each indicator to assess the degree of reduction of disparities due to education and media exposure. The
observed RRs and ‘differences in CIs’ for almost all indicators suggest that lower inequality exists among
those who are exposed to media compared to those without exposed to media. Similar findings were
observed with those having no-education and having secondary or more. That is, higher education and
exposure to mass media can reduce the poor-rich disparities substantially. |
|