Area Deprivation and Health- Index Construction and Association Analysis with Mortality in Taiwan

• Main Authors: Cheng-Ting Lin, 林正挺
• Other Authors: Kai-Ren Chen
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2014
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/6s4sa8

碩士 === 輔仁大學 === 公共衛生學系碩士班 === 102 === Background: Health inequality is growing due to gap in socio-economic status among people. Area deprivation index is commonly used to identify relative advantage/disadvantage leading to residents’ health status in many western countries. Also, policies and resources allocation are often based on the variation of area deprivation. The first area deprivation index of Taiwan has been established in 2001 and has not been updated. It is necessary to generate a new index based on current information. Objective: The objective of this study is to establish a new area deprivation index for Taiwan using up-to-date data related to area deprivation and to analyze the relationships between area deprivation and mortalities in both 2000 and 2010. Materials and Methods: The source of deprivation indicators is from the results of Taiwan’s Population and Housing Census in 2000 and 2010. All-cause age-standardized mortality and all-cancer age-standardized mortality were retrieved from health statistics released by Taiwan’s Ministry of Health and Welfare. Frequency and percentage were used to describe the distribution of area deprivation and mortalities. Spearman correlation and scatter plot were used to discover their relationships. Results: In this study, area deprivation index contains percentages of people in low educational level, people in primary industries, of elderly who live alone, and of indigenous people. Area deprivation was positively correlated with all-cause age-standardized mortality and all-cancer age-standardized mortality significantly for both 2000 & 2010. However, the changes of area deprivation levels did not significantly associate with mortalities. Conclusion: Area deprivation appeared to have positive association with age-standardized mortality and all-cancer age-standardized mortality. Health inequality will increase if highly deprived areas were not provided with more resources. It is suggested that health authorities should apply the findings of this study when they reallocate resources to fulfill the goal of health for all policy.