Health Inequality in Jamaica, 1988-2007

Objective: T h e mortality for men is not only greater than that of women as indicated by the life expectancy but of the five leading cause of death in the nation (malignant neoplasms; cerebrovascular disease; heart disease; diabetes mellitus and homicides), the rates for men were greater in four (malignant neoplasms; cerebrovascular; hea rt d is e a se and homicides). Despite these realities , men seek less medical care than the women and s tay longer in hospitals for curative care. This s tudy examines medical seeking behaviour, self-reported ill-health, and ge nder differential in medical seeking h e a lt h care and self-reported ill-health. Method: The current research used secondary data. The dat a were extracted from the Jamaica Survey of Living Conditions (JSLC) on medical care seeking behaviour, self-repo rted illness (or ill-health) and the gender compos ition of those who reported illhealth. The JSLC was born out of the W orld Bank’s Living Standard Su rv e y . Data were also taken fro m t he Minis try of Health’s Annual Report, which provided s tatis tics on actual percentage o f Jamaicans who vis ited public hospitals . The current s tudy used 19 years of p u blished data extracted from the JSLC (1988-2007). Scatter diagrams and bes t fitted lines were used to examine correlatio n s and trends . Results : Over a 2-decade p eriod, 1988 to 2007, only a small percentage of Jamaicans reported ill-health (between 9 to 19 %) and 15.5% in 2007, which is an increase of 3.3% over the previous year. Despite this low figure, increas ingly mo re men sought medical care over the s tudy period (41.1%) compared to women (29%). Nevertheless , healt h care seeking behaviour is s till gender bia s – 68.1% of women and 62.8% of men who reported health conditions . For men, more of medical care seekin g behaviour is explained by ill-health (r-squared=35.4%) than women (r-squared 8.8%). Conclus ion: This s tudy is one of the firs t to examine a n d p ro v id e some explanation on gender differentials in health care behaviour and self-reported illness /injury in Jamaica. W e found th a t wh ile more men who report ill-health have been se e kin g me d ical care, the gap between the sexes in regard health seeking behaviour has been narrowing.