Objective To investigate inequality in disability in Bangladesh. Methods The study used both household level and individual level data from a large nationally representative data set, Bangladesh’s Household Income and Expenditure Survey - 2010. Principal component analysis was used to construct a wealth index based on household assets from household level data. Then, using data from 49,809 individuals aged 5 years and over, chi-square tests and logistic regression were performed to test the association between wealth level and disability. Findings Women and older people are significantly more likely to report having disabilities than men and younger people. For middle and rich families, respectively, there is a 14 percent lower likelihood of reporting disabilities than for poor families. Changes in the probability of having disabilities are linear with increasing wealth. In addition, the study identifies some significant factors affecting disability, namely, age, sex, education, marital status, and place of residence including divisional differences. Conclusion In Bangladesh, worse health among the poor argues for policies prioritizing this group while at the same time giving special attention to women and the elderly.
Department of Population Science and Human Resource Development, University of Rajshahi, Rajshahi, Bangladesh;Population and Health Studies Division, Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS), Dhaka, Bangladesh;Advanced Research Institute for the Sciences and Humanities, Nihon University, Tokyo, Japan;School of Medicine, Nihon University, Tokyo, Japan;Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School, Singapore, Singapore
Recommended Citation:
Md. Ismail Tareque,Sharifa Begum,Yasuhiko Saito. Inequality in Disability in Bangladesh[J]. PLOS ONE,2014-01-01,9(7)