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Income Inequality in Quality of Life among Rural Communities in Malaysia: A Case for Immediate Policy Consideration

Quality of life (QOL) is a proxy of health and social well-being. Hence, it is vital to assess QOL as it informs the strategies of policymakers to enhance the living conditions in communities. Rural areas in emerging economies are underserved in terms of modern facilities and technologies, which imp...

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Autores principales: Thangiah, Govindamal, Said, Mas Ayu, Majid, Hazreen Abdul, Reidpath, Daniel, Su, Tin Tin
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7727827/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33255397
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17238731
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author Thangiah, Govindamal
Said, Mas Ayu
Majid, Hazreen Abdul
Reidpath, Daniel
Su, Tin Tin
author_facet Thangiah, Govindamal
Said, Mas Ayu
Majid, Hazreen Abdul
Reidpath, Daniel
Su, Tin Tin
author_sort Thangiah, Govindamal
collection PubMed
description Quality of life (QOL) is a proxy of health and social well-being. Hence, it is vital to assess QOL as it informs the strategies of policymakers to enhance the living conditions in communities. Rural areas in emerging economies are underserved in terms of modern facilities and technologies, which impact QOL. To address this, this study investigated whether income played a role in the QOL of rural residents within emerging economies using a large survey of Malaysian adults above 18 years old. The study extracted data from a sample of 18,607 respondents of a health and demographic surveillance system survey. A generalized linear model was used to estimate the impact of three income groups, the bottom 40%, middle 40% and top 20%, on perceived QOL, controlling for sociodemographic, chronic disease co-morbidities and mental health status. Results of the study showed a statistically significant association between income and the physical, psychological, social and environmental QOL domains. Using the bottom 40% as a reference category, the middle 40% and top 20% income groups showed a significant and positive association across the four domains of QOL. Hence, intervention programs are necessary to escalate the income levels of rural communities, especially the bottom 40%, to uplift perceived QOL among rural residents.
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spelling pubmed-77278272020-12-11 Income Inequality in Quality of Life among Rural Communities in Malaysia: A Case for Immediate Policy Consideration Thangiah, Govindamal Said, Mas Ayu Majid, Hazreen Abdul Reidpath, Daniel Su, Tin Tin Int J Environ Res Public Health Article Quality of life (QOL) is a proxy of health and social well-being. Hence, it is vital to assess QOL as it informs the strategies of policymakers to enhance the living conditions in communities. Rural areas in emerging economies are underserved in terms of modern facilities and technologies, which impact QOL. To address this, this study investigated whether income played a role in the QOL of rural residents within emerging economies using a large survey of Malaysian adults above 18 years old. The study extracted data from a sample of 18,607 respondents of a health and demographic surveillance system survey. A generalized linear model was used to estimate the impact of three income groups, the bottom 40%, middle 40% and top 20%, on perceived QOL, controlling for sociodemographic, chronic disease co-morbidities and mental health status. Results of the study showed a statistically significant association between income and the physical, psychological, social and environmental QOL domains. Using the bottom 40% as a reference category, the middle 40% and top 20% income groups showed a significant and positive association across the four domains of QOL. Hence, intervention programs are necessary to escalate the income levels of rural communities, especially the bottom 40%, to uplift perceived QOL among rural residents. MDPI 2020-11-24 /pmc/articles/PMC7727827/ /pubmed/33255397 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17238731 Text en © 2020 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) ).
spellingShingle Article
Thangiah, Govindamal
Said, Mas Ayu
Majid, Hazreen Abdul
Reidpath, Daniel
Su, Tin Tin
Income Inequality in Quality of Life among Rural Communities in Malaysia: A Case for Immediate Policy Consideration
title Income Inequality in Quality of Life among Rural Communities in Malaysia: A Case for Immediate Policy Consideration
title_full Income Inequality in Quality of Life among Rural Communities in Malaysia: A Case for Immediate Policy Consideration
title_fullStr Income Inequality in Quality of Life among Rural Communities in Malaysia: A Case for Immediate Policy Consideration
title_full_unstemmed Income Inequality in Quality of Life among Rural Communities in Malaysia: A Case for Immediate Policy Consideration
title_short Income Inequality in Quality of Life among Rural Communities in Malaysia: A Case for Immediate Policy Consideration
title_sort income inequality in quality of life among rural communities in malaysia: a case for immediate policy consideration
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7727827/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33255397
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17238731
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