Publication:

Effect of socio-demographic characteristics on the morbidity prevalence among the urban poor in a metropolitan city of South India

Background The health needs of the urban poor is a major herculean task to the health system personnel.  Hence, it is attempted to understand the role of age, education and income on the morbidity prevalence among the poor migrants dwelling in the Bangalore slumsMethods: A cross-sectional two-stage cluster random sampling design was used for selecting the slum households from various clusters in Bangalore city.

Results Data were collected from 4005 households in the slums of Bangalore city which consists of 16737 individuals’ information with the average family size of 4.18. Illness were reported as 18.5% (n=1626) and 20.1% (n=1594) for males and females respectively and the difference between these proportions are statistically significant (P=0.008).  Income and educational levels are significantly (P=0.000) associated on the morbidity prevalence.  The infants’ morbidity rate is 17.1 and 38.1 for males and females respectively.

Conclusions The morbidity distribution follows a quadratic pattern.  Income and education have effective role on morbidity prevalence; both the variables are inversely associated on morbidity prevalence. Morbidity prevalence on age is similar to mortality curve.