SOCIAL DETERMINANTS OF HEALTH AND HEALTH INEQUALITIES: DIFFERENCES BETWEEN URBAN AND RURAL AREAS

Year 2021, Volume: 17 Issue: 2, 151 - 166, 22.11.2021

Alpaslan Türkkan , Kayıhan Pala

Abstract

Health disparities between urban and rural areas in Turkey have not been fully known yet, which remained under-researched in the relevant literature. To investigate the distribution of health and its social determinants, including demographics, socio-economic characteristics, and behavioral factors in the rural and urban population, who live in Turkey. In this study, we used cross-sectional data, namely the Nilüfer Social Determinants of Health Survey 2014. The findings showed that 799 of the houses (79.3%) and 79.9% of the respondents (2481 people) were in the city. In this study, 20.1% of the respondents (n=624) were reported to live in 208 (20.7%) of the houses that were located in the rural area. The socioeconomic indicators (education, employment status, household appliances, car ownership, household income, income status and money-saving) explored in this study were correlated with the health indicators (p<0.01). Socioeconomic indicators were strongly associated with health in both rural and urban area. The residential area was an important determinant of health. Our study, however, has revealed that socioeconomic factors are highly likely to determine the health status of people more than urban-rural settings. Thus, the higher the socioeconomic status is the better the health indicators are.

Keywords

Social determinants of health, Urban health, Socioeconomic factors, Chronic disease, Injuries.

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