Associations of Wealth with Health Status in the Thai Older Persons

Abstract

This study examined the distribution of wealth and associations between wealth and trends in relative health inequalities after adjusting for other socio-economic position indicators among Thai among Thai adults aged 50 and over. We obtained data from the Survey of The Older Persons in Thailand 2017. Two health outcomes, Self-rated health (SRH) and limitation of at least one activity daily living (ADL), were used as dependent variables. Binary logistic regression was conducted to examine the relationships with wealth index, education, place of resident including demographic. Health inequality was estimated using the Relative Index of Inequality (RII). This study found that wealth index, which derived from data of the survey of older person, could be used to provide measures of socioeconomic inequality among Thai older persons and monitoring aging policies when income data was difficult to analyze and consumption expenditure data were not available. The inequality of health status was evident among various wealth groups. The richest tercile of the wealth index was much healthier than the poorest group, and this difference increased with age. Our results also suggested that education was protective factors for health outcome. However, living in rural or urban area were no statistic significant in this study.