Prevalence of Urban Poor and Its Health Related Factors in the State of Selangor, Malaysia
- Author:
MS Sherina
;
L Rampal
;
AR Hejar
;
A Rozali
;
A Mohd Yunus
- Publication Type:Journal Article
- Keywords:
Urban poor, prevalence, health-related-factors, Selangor
- From:Malaysian Journal of Medicine and Health Sciences
2011;7(1):17-26
- CountryMalaysia
- Language:English
-
Abstract:
The objectives of this study were to determine the prevalence of the urban poor and its health related
factors in Selangor. This cross-sectional study was conducted in the community of Selangor. Data
was collected from January 2006 to June 2006. Three out of nine districts were selected to be involved
in the study, which were Klang, Kuala Langat and Petaling. A Multistage Stratified Proportionate
Systematic Random Sampling was used for this study. The sampling was carried out by the Statistics
Department of Malaysia. The survey frame was based on the information gathered from the Population
and Housing Census in year 2000. The respondents were interviewed by trained research assistants
using a structured pre-tested standardized questionnaire prepared in Malay and English languages.
A monthly income of RM706 and less was used to define urban poor based on the guidelines given
by the Economy Planning Unit of Malaysia (2004). SPSS 16.0 version was used to analyze the data.
Out of 2535 respondents interviewed in this study, 2491 respondents answered the questionnaire
completely (response rate 98.3%). Out of 2491 respondents, 202 (8.1%) had a monthly income of
RM706 and less. Analysis of the urban poor respondents found that majority were aged between 18 to
40 years old (55.9%), and 29.7% had diagnosed medical illnesses, where hypertension, diabetes and
asthma were the most common illnesses at 12.4%, 10.9% and 5.0% respectively. About 10% of the
urban poor respondents had physical disabilities such as blurring of vision (7.9%), hearing problems
(1.0%) and other disabilities (1.0%).
