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. 2014 Jul 30:14:768.
doi: 10.1186/1471-2458-14-768.

Levels and distribution of self-rated health in the Kazakh population: results from the Kazakhstan household health survey 2012

Adil Supiyev  1 , Talgat Nurgozhin, Zhaxybay Zhumadilov, Almaz Sharman, Michael Marmot, Martin Bobak
Affiliations

Levels and distribution of self-rated health in the Kazakh population: results from the Kazakhstan household health survey 2012

Adil Supiyev et al. BMC Public Health. .

Abstract

Background: The high and fluctuating mortality and rising health inequalities in post-Soviet countries have attracted considerable attention. However, there are very few individual-level data on distribution of health outcomes in Central Asian countries of the former Soviet Union. We analysed socioeconomic predictors of two self-rated health outcomes in a national survey in Kazakhstan.

Methods: We used data from the 2012 Kazakhstan Household Health Survey on 12,560 respondents aged 15+. Self-rated health, self-reported worsening of health, and a range of socio-demographic variables were collected in an interview. The self-rated health outcomes were dichotomized and logistic regression was used to estimate their associations with education, income, ownership of a car, second house and computer, marital status, ethnicity and urban/rural residence.

Results: The prevalence of poor/very poor self-rated health was 5.3%, and 11.0% of participants reported worse health compared to 1 year ago. After controlling for age, sex and region, all socio-demographic factors were related to self-rated health. After adjusting for all variables, education and car ownership showed the most consistent effects; the odds ratio of poor health and worsening of health were 0.43 (95% confidence interval 0.32-0.58) and 0.54 (0.44-0.68) for university vs. primary education, respectively, and 0.64 (0.51-0.82) and 0.68 (0.58-0.80) for car ownership, respectively. Unmarried persons, ethnic Russians and urban residents also had increased prevalence of poor health in multivariable models.

Conclusions: Despite the limitations of using subjective health measures, these data suggest strong associations between two measures of self-rated health and a number of socioeconomic characteristics. Future studies and health policy initiatives in Kazakhstan and other Central Asian countries should take social determinants of health into account.

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Pre-publication history
    1. The pre-publication history for this paper can be accessed here:http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2458/14/768/prepub

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