Citation

Natale JE, Joseph JG, Bergen R, Thulasiraj RD, Rahmathullah L. Int. J. Epidemiol. 1992; 21(2): 367-372.

Affiliation

College of Human Medicine, Michigan State University, East Lansing 48823.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1992, International Epidemiological Association, Publisher Oxford University Press)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

1428494

Abstract

Researchers analyzed data on 640 2-9 year old children who lived in either a lowest social status neighborhood or a next to lowest social status neighborhood in Madurai in Tamil Nadu State in India to determine whether small differences at the lowest end of the socioeconomic scale would be associated with differential health status. Interviewers spoke with the families in December 1990 and used a screening tool with 100% sensitivity and 95% specificity previously validated in a community based study in Bangladesh. 17.2% of families in the slum had a child with a disability compared to 8.4% in the next to lowest social class area (odds ratio=2.36 [OR]; p.001). Further disability prevalence was consistently higher among children from the lowest social class, especially sensory (4.8% vs. 0.9%; p=.003), neuromotor (8.1% vs. 3%; p=.005), and cognitive disabilities (3.5% vs. 1.2%; p=.05). In fact, the multiple logistic regression which took in consideration age, gender, number of children in the household, birth order, and social status revealed that the only significant and meaningful relationship affecting childhood disability was lowest social status (OR=2.39). These results demonstrated that the lowest status families were 2.39 times more likely to have disabled children even though the differences in income between the 2 deprived groups was small. The study did not identify what mechanism was responsible for the disparity between the 2 groups, however. The researchers encouraged other studies to identify the mechanism for disability among the lowest social class and yet not among another very resource poor group.

Language: en