Abstract:
BACKGROUND: The socioeconomic determinants of health can be understood as the social conditions in which
people live and work. The objective of the study was to explore the socioeconomic determinants of health in adults
aged 18 years and above with the Ethiopian context for possible policy directives and intervention.
METHODS: A community based survey was conducted in Kersa District, Jimma Zone on a sample of 422 adults,
who were residing in a randomly selected ten kebeles (nine rural and 1 urban). Data were collected through faceto- face interview. The outcome variable was self rated general health state which is measured in a single five point
Likert item, which is dichotomized as “poor health” and “good health” for subsequent analysis.
RESULTS: Household asset index was constructed as a proxy measure for socioeconomic status a single
household asset index was constructed for the whole sample using principal component analysis (PCA). Majority of
the respondents 378 (89.6%) rated their health state as good and 44 (10.4%) rated their health state as poor. The
Bivariate analysis exhibited association of statistical significance with age (P value for trend = <0.001), moderate
physical activity OR(95%CI:0.22-0.81), place of residence OR(95%CI:1.33-6.33) and alcohol consumption OR
(95%CI: 0.07-0.83) but the independent predictors of poor health state were sufficient physical activity of moderate
intensity OR (95%CI :0.19-0.77) ,age OR (95%CI: 1.02-1.07) and sex OR ( 95%CI: 1.12-4.79).
CONCLUSIONS: The socioeconomic determinants of health in this study converged mainly on to negative
lifestyle practice such as level of physical activity and the socio demographic characteristics sex and increasing age
which signifies upcoming intervention strategies in the future should emphasize health problems of females and the
elderly. And also equipping the community with the right information about the benefits of sufficient physical
activity deserves special attention
