Health, lifestyle and health care utilization among health professionals

Health care workers are responsible for the execution of the health policy of a nation, yet little if any empirical evidence is there on health, lifestyle, health choices, and health conditions of health care workers in the rural parish of Hanover, Jamaica. The current study examines health, lifestyle and health behaviour among health professional in Hanover. The current study has a sample of 212 respondents. A 26- item questionnaire was used to collect the data. Data from the questionnaires were coded and entered into a micro-computer and analysis done using SPSS for Widows Version 15.0 soft- ware. The Chi-square test was used to test association between non-metric variables. A p-value <0.05 (two-tailed) was selected to indicate statistical significance. It was found that 16.0% of respondents had diabetes mellitus (2.8% of males compared to 19.8% females);22.6% had hypertension (25.5% of female and 12.8% of males);0.5% breast cancer;0.5% stomach cancer;1.9% enlarged heart;and 0.5% ischemic heart disease. Forty-three percentage points of the sample was overweight, 33.5% obese and 24.1% had a normal weight. Over 15% of nurses and doctors were obese compared to 38% of ancillary staffers. Twenty percentage points of respondents consume alcohol on a regular basis;15.6% do no regular physical exercise, 42.4% add sweetening to their hot beverages, and 4.7% were smokers. There is a need for public health practitioners to formulate a health intervention programme that will target people in Hanover, but also specific groups such as doctors, nurses, administrative, ancillary staffers and technical staffers.

Determinants of self-rated private health insurance coverage in Jamaica

The purpose of the current study was to model the health insurance coverage of Jamaicans;and to identify the determinants, strength and predictive power of the model in order to aid clinicians and other health practitioners in understanding those who have health insurance coverage. This study utilized secondary data taken from the dataset of the Jamaica Survey of Living Conditions which was collected between July and October 2002. It was a nationally representative stratified random sample survey of 25,018 respondents, with 50.7% females and 49.3% males. The data was collected by way of a self-administered questionnaire. The non-response rate for the survey was 29.7% with 20.5% not responding to particular questions, 9.0% not participating in the survey and another 0.2% being rejected due to data cleaning. The current research extracted 16,118 people 15 years and older from the survey sample of 25,018 respondents in order to model the determinants of private health insurance coverage in Jamaica. Data were stored, retrieved and analyzed using SPSS for Windows 15.0. A p-value of less than 0.05 was used to establish statistical significance. Descriptive analysis was used to provide baseline information on the sample, and cross-tabulations were used to examine some non-metric variables. Logistic regression was used to identify, determine and establish those factors that influence private health insurance coverage in Jamaica. This study found that approximately 12% of Jamaicans had private health insurance coverage, of which the least health insurance was owned by rural residents (7.5%). Using logistic regression, the findings revealed that twelve variables emerged as statistically significant determinants of health insurance coverage in this sample. These variables are social standing (two weal- thiest quintile: OR = 1.68, 95% CI = 1.23 – 2.30), income (OR = 1.00, 95%CI = 1.00 – 1.00), durable goods (OR = 1.16, 95% CI = 1.12 – 1.19), marital status (married: OR = 1.97, 95% CI = 1.61 – 2.42), area of residence (Peri-urban: OR = 1.45, 95% CI = 1.199 – 1.75;urban: OR = 1.83, 95% CI = 1.40 – 2.40), education (secondary: OR = 1.57, 95% CI = 1.20 – 2.06;tertiary: OR = 9.03, 95% CI = 6.47 – 12.59), social support (OR = 0.64, 95% CI = 0.53 – 0.76), crowding (OR = 1.14, 95% CI = 1.02 – 1.28), psychological conditions (negative affective: OR = 0.97, 95% CI = 0.94 – 1.00;positive affective: OR = 1.11, 95% CI = 1.06 – 1.16), number of males in household (OR = 0.85, 95% CI = 0.77 – 0.93), living arrangements (OR = 0.62, 95% CI = 0.41 – 0.92) and retirement benefits (OR = 1.55, 95% CI = 1.03 – 2.35). This study highlighted the need to address preventative care for the wealthiest, rural residents and the fact that social support is crucial to health care, as well as the fact that medical care costs are borne by the extended family and other social groups in which the individual is (or was) a member, which explains the low demand for health insurance in Jamaica. Private health care in Jamaica is substantially determined by affordability and education rather than illness, and it is a poor measure of the health care- seeking behaviour of Jamaicans.