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Assessing socioeconomic inequalities of hypertension among women in Indonesia's major cities

Journal of Human Hypertension volume 29, pages 683–688 (2015)Cite this article

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Abstract

Although hypertension has been recognized as one of the major public health problems, few studies address economic inequality of hypertension among urban women in developing countries. To assess this issue, we analysed data for 1400 women from four of Indonesia’s major cities: Jakarta, Surabaya, Medan and Bandung. Women were aged ⩾15 years (mean age 35.4 years), and were participants in the 2007/2008 Indonesia Family Life Survey. The prevalence of hypertension measured by digital sphygmomanometer among this population was 31%. Using a multivariable logistic regression model, socioeconomic disadvantage (based on household assets and characteristics) as well as age, body mass index and economic conditions were significantly associated with hypertension (P<0.05). Applying the Fairlie decomposition model, results showed that 14% of the inequality between less and more economically advantaged groups could be accounted for by the distribution of socioeconomic characteristics. Education was the strongest contributor to inequality, with lower education levels increasing the predicted probability of hypertension among less economically advantaged groups. This work highlights the importance of socioeconomic inequality in the development of hypertension, and particularly the effects of education level.

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Acknowledgements

The research was conducted based on IFLS-4 conducted by RAND (www.rand.org).We thank RAND for access to the survey data. We are grateful to the study participants who provided the survey data. This research was supported by the Priority Research Centre for Gender, Health and Ageing. All researchers at the Research Centre for Gender, Health and Ageing are members of the Hunter Medical Research Institute (HMRI). We thank Cassie Curryer, Research Centre for Gender, Health and Ageing, for her assistance with editorial comments and manuscript preparation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Priority Research Centre for Gender, Health and Ageing, University of Newcastle, New Lambton Heights, Australia

    Y Christiani, J E Byles & M Tavener

  2. Centre for Health Stewardships, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia Capital Territory, Australia

    P Dugdale

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  1. Y Christiani
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  2. J E Byles
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  3. M Tavener
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  4. P Dugdale
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Correspondence to Y Christiani.

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Christiani, Y., Byles, J., Tavener, M. et al. Assessing socioeconomic inequalities of hypertension among women in Indonesia's major cities. J Hum Hypertens 29, 683–688 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/jhh.2015.8

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