Multilevel analysis of the social determinants of health status and wellbeing of rural farmers in North-central Nigeria
Introduction Over the years, rural dwellers have suffered from the unequal distribution of basic facilities when compared to the urban dwellers. This has resulted in situations where their health have been compromised and thus their productive capacity. Methods This paper using a Multilevel Anal...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Jabatan Kesihatan Masyarakat, Pusat Perubatan Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
2016
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| Online Access: | http://journalarticle.ukm.my/11564/ http://journalarticle.ukm.my/11564/ http://journalarticle.ukm.my/11564/1/42-349-1-PB.pdf |
| Summary: | Introduction Over the years, rural dwellers have suffered from the unequal distribution of
basic facilities when compared to the urban dwellers. This has resulted in
situations where their health have been compromised and thus their
productive capacity.
Methods This paper using a Multilevel Analysis examines these social determinants of
health status and wellbeing of rural farmers in North-central, Nigeria.
Analytical tools employed include the descriptive statistics and the
multivariate multilevel model.
Results The result of the analysis showed that the income, years of schooling, living
condition, frequency of physical exercise, alcohol consumption and smoking
habit were some of the factors significantly influencing the health status and
wellbeing of rural farmers in the study area. Others include exposure to
tobacco smoke, access to improved toilet facilities, proper solid waste
management and distance to potable water. It also revealed that community
level co-variation between health status and wellbeing was stronger than at
the individual level.
Conclusions Therefore, it was recommended that efforts should be made by government to
provide rural areas with basic potable water sources. The rural dwellers
should also be enlightened on the basics of good sanitation and hygiene. This
will help reduce diseases and deaths from water-related infections and poor
hygiene. Furthermore, laws should be put in place to prohibit smoking of
tobacco products in public places. All these will reduce the incidence of
disease conditions thereby resulting in a healthier workforce that can thus
work together with the government towards the achievement of the
sustainable development goals. |
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