Determination of Factors Influencing Perceived Health Status Among Poor and Non-Poor Women in Eastern Turkey

• Main Authors: Bahar Z., Capik C.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Professor Despina Sapountzi-Krepia 2008-01-01
• Series: International Journal of Caring Sciences
• Subjects: Poverty; women's health; perceived health; nursing
• Online Access: http://internationaljournalofcaringsciences.org/docs/Vol1_Issue2_02_Capik.pdf

B A C K G R O U N D : Socio-economic status, income, gender, education, and individual and cultural differencesinfluence the perceived health status. Perceived health is important as it enables individuals to be sensitive to changesin their health, and heralds the presence of diseases before their signs and symptoms appear.A I M : This study was conducted to determine factors that may account for variations in perceived health statusbetween poor and non-poor women.M A T E R I A L - M E T H O D : The study was conducted in Kars, a city located in the eastern part of Turkey, andincluded a total of 420 women (210 poor and 210 non-poor).R E S U L T S : The non-poor women had better living conditions and did not have to struggle to make a living.There was a significant difference (P<0.01) in health perception between the poor and non-poor populations, with78.1% of the poor women and 43.4% of the non-poor women having a bad to moderate perception of health. Amongthe poor women, chronic diseases (P<0.01), age (P<0.05) and monthly income (P<0.05) significantly affected perceivedhealth status; education, marital status, smoking and health insurance had no significant impact on perceived healthstatus (P>0.05). Among the non-poor women, education (P<0.05), chronic diseases (P<0.01), age (P<0.05), monthlyincome (P<0.05) and health insurance (P<0.01) significantly affected perceived health status; marital status and smokingdid not affect the perceived health status (P>0.05).C O N C L U S I O N S : The results of this study indicate that perceived health status, an important indicator foractual health status, is affected by poverty.