BHeC Releases 2013 Health Disparities Report
The Bermuda Health Council [BHeC] today [Mar 14] released the 2013 Health Disparities Report, which indicated low income and education are more significant determinants of poor health than gender and race.
This report provides a look at inequalities on the Island in the four following areas: health outcomes, access to healthcare, health-related behaviours, and health expenditure. It investigates inequalities between demographic groups based on: age, gender, race, marital status, household income, education and employment status.
The report is based on BHeC’s extensive statistical analysis of data from the 2011 Adult Health Survey and a specially-commissioned survey by BHeC on household health expenditure.
Main findings from the report are that:
- Less educated and lower income residents have poorer physical and mental health, which include: lower life satisfaction, less social support, higher incidence of chronic conditions, more disability and obesity; and less use of health services.
- Residents of higher income and education smoke less, eat better, and are less likely to have multiple sex partners or to engage in other behaviours that increase the risk of HIV.
- Persons of higher income and education are more likely to binge-drink, and those of higher education are more likely to drive drunk.
- Race was associated with few health inequalities; where a relationship existed the findings generally indicated poorer outcomes among “other” race individuals (self-identified as mixed race, Asian, etc.).
- Non-employed persons of working age are more likely to visit the emergency room and government clinics than employed persons.
- Women engage in more healthy behaviours than men in terms of less smoking, better diet, less road traffic crashes and more seatbelt use. But they are more likely to experience fear of violence and are more likely to be a victim of domestic violence.
- 25% of low-income [less than $60K p/year] and 10% of high-income [over $108K p/year] households had uninsured household members.
- Although low-income residents had poorer health, 34% spent nothing out-of-pocket on medical services during the month prior to the survey.
- Despite having poorer health, low-income households spent less on health in dollar amounts, due to lower service use.
- Despite spending less in dollar amounts, the average low-income households spent nearly 20% of their income on health, compared to 3% for those in the highest income bracket.
Dr. Jennifer Attride-Stirling, Chief Executive Officer of the Bermuda Health Council, commented: “The Health Disparities Report is intended to inform the healthcare community of gaps in the health system and to help guide policy development and programme design. Many of the findings are similar to those of other countries – health inequalities exist everywhere. But we need local data to plan programmes that will target our local problems.
“The findings show that low income and education are more significant determinants of poor health than other demographic characteristics like gender and race. Poor health ultimately leads not only to suffering by individuals and families, but to economic dependence, creating a vicious cycle where poverty leads to ill health and ill health leads to poverty. We hope the results of this report will be of value to policy makers and the healthcare community.”
Dr. Michelle Ye, Health Economist of the Bermuda Health Council, commented: “Disparities, or inequalities, in health have been widely studied in other nations. The consensus is that they are largely caused by social and economic disparities. For Bermuda, the Health Disparities Report 2013 is the first publication in this area.
“Inequalities in health status as seen in Bermuda cannot be explained simply by luck, genetics, or even behaviour and access to medical care. This is because disparities in behaviour and access are also products of social and economic disparities. As evidenced by this report, major health inequalities are strongly associated with social and economic factors. Other factors such as race and gender have little or limited roles.”
The full report follows below [PDF here]:
This may be a simplistic extrapolation of this report, but with so many unemployed or underemployed, plus a whole crop of recently graduated students who are inadequately prepared for the work force, much les for college (poor reading writing and math skills, based on a ‘D’ or lower score in an international exam) we can expect some major strains on our already stretched and expensive health care system in the near future. Most of these folks will have inadequate insurance, if any insurance at all. Nor will they have the funds to pay for medical care.
Sounds like the return of the People’s Cinic can’t come a moment too soon!
This Dribble needs to be re-surveyed because I’m sure their way off in figures.
So let’s see if I understand. Low income is “less that $60,000″ and high income is “over $108,000″.
First, the average income on the Island is less than $60K, which means that at least half of people in Bermuda are “low income”. In other words, bin the report and ask for something meaningful’
@blankman… The article refers to household income. The average household income is not less than $60K.
do u see that your health and wellness is of NO CONCERN to the Medical Association, but your Bank Account is…Don’t fall victim to all of their Medical Propaganda…Traditional Western Medicine is a FARCE…F#@K! them! seek alternative healing…seek out the truth, its right there in front of you.
As a skeptic I decided to “seek alternative healing” as a last ditch option to my out of control blood pressure & since it was alternative of course it wasn’t covered by the insurance companies (at that time, not sure about now). However the end results was worlds better then what I was able to achieve using traditional western medicine. After a couple months of alternative healing my doctor was very impressed with the end results & thus two skeptics minds where open to alternative healing. I am not saying it’s a cure all also as I mentioned I still stayed under the watchful eye of my traditional doctor to monitor my health while using alternative healing & no, I am not referring to the kind of “healing” that you inhale.
im glad to hear your condition was reversed…but i dont recall suggesting that you inhale anything…Traditional medicine is worthy only for Trauma(broken bones etc.)when it comes to Ailments or wellness…bypass any person in a white coat handing you chemicals to treat…do more indepth research and you WILL find CURES for every ailment. It’s not the whitecoats fault…they too are misinformed or never informed about real healing because it is not as profitable, but drugs and surgery are…its all about the bureaucracy which i dont have time to reveal here…seek and thou shalt find .
I guess all that KFC us black folk eat isn’t affecting our health that much after-all. But hold on!!! Isn’t that were the uneducated and low-income people can mostly afford to eat? Lol
KFC cheap…gotta be kidding me!!!!
Cheaper in comparison to other fast food restaurants unless you get the lunch special at East meets west
KFC cheap?!!? lmao you could get 25 zingers for de price of one in foreign
That’s true but I’m talking about cheap in comparison to other restaurants in Bermuda….unless kfc been raising there prices last couple years…besides I haven’t eaten that stuff in years gave it up…I prefer the ital path..
On a more serious note…
How about the correlation between race and low-income housing…Why was that excluded from the study…and how does that affect the overall picture?
I find it peculiar that they left it out…hhhhmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
“Less educated and lower income residents have poorer physical and mental health”
Which race (if any
accounts for the majority of less educated and lower income?
Interesting……
Anyone with half a brain could have figured this one out. Just drop into KFC and look around…
Folks reading this info (and indeed publishing it) need to be aware that a more sophisticated statistical approach is required to prove the directionality of this data. Correlation does not equal causation. Or in plain language, without a more rigorous analysis one could equally write:
“Poorer physical and mental health, causes people to be less educated and earn ower incomes.”
“Residents who smoke less, eat better, and do not have multiple sex partners are more likely to earn higher income and have higher education results.” (Don’t tell the herb-heads this. They will say it is a conspiracy and nothing to do with them killing their already low brain cell count)
“Persons who binge-drink are less likely to earn higher incomes and secure higher education.”
Be cautious about the directionality of this data! Note there is a very high correlation between stork citing a in Nordic countries and birth rates. Yet we do not conclude that storks deliver babies…
Funny how many of the most productive members of our society smoke herb and you wouldn’t even know it (politicians, doctors, lawyers, police, etc). What you gotta say about that, obviously you’re still stuck in the past. It doesn’t kill your brain cells stop taking all that propaganda to heart.
Yes-I Ganja Mon…these so called educated non-herbalists that can’t even solve a problem that can be solved by a child has caused this to happen…I over heard a conversation today about how some guy was selling a 0.5 of a gram of herb for $70…Now do the math on that to find out how much can be made off of 1 pound, correct me if i’m wrong 1 gram would cost $140 yeah? 28 grams to an ounce would be ahhh, $3920 then multiply that by 16 oz to the pound comes to ahhh $62,720…so my point is, whoever is against the legalization of Marijuana, is committing an act of terrorism by aiding the Underground element to become very very wealthy, whose wealth will contribute to the destruction of our society. So the ones that are against legalization are the ones who are causing the deaths of these young men in this game of survival…YES YOU! YOU NON SMOKING BRAIN DEAD ZOMBIE CARRYING OUT THE ORDERS OF THE TOTALITARIAN REGIME WHICH YOU UNWITTINGLY HAVE BECOME PROPERTY OF…slavery is here again..MENTAL SLAVERY. WAKE UP AND LIVE.