Self-evaluated health of married people in Jamaica

Paul A. Bourne
DOI: 10.4236/health.2009.14055                

Abstract

Background: In the Caribbean in particular Ja-maica, no study has been done to examine married respondents in order to understand reasons for their greater health status. The ob-jectives of the current study are: 1) examine the sociodemographic characteristics of married people in Jamaica; 2) evaluate self-rated health status of married people in Jamaica; 3) deter-mine factors that account for good health status of married people and 4) provide public health practitioners with empirical studies that can be used to formulate policies for men in particular non-married men in Jamaica. Materials and me- thods: Stratified random sampling technique was used to select 6,783 respondents. It was a nationally representative sample. Logistic re-gression analysis was used to ascertain the correlates of health status. Results: The mean age for women in marriage in Jamaica was 6 years lower than that of men. The correlates of good health status (including moderate health) of respondents in descending order were self- reported illness (OR = 0.12, 95%CI = 0.01- 0.17); age (OR = 0.94, 95%CI = 0.93-0.96); income (OR = 1.32, 95%CI = 1.05-1.66) and sex of respon-dents (Or = 1.14-2.32)—χ2(df = 4) = 383.2, P < 0.05. The four variables accounted for 44.4% of the explanatory power of the model; with self-reported illness accounting for 32.5% of the explanatory power. Conclusion: Marriage pro-vides greater access to more socioeconomic resources for its participants as well as increase men’s unwillingness to visit medical care prac-titioners.

Keywords

Marriage; Sexes; Health Status; Sociodemographic Correlates; Jamaica

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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