A systematic review of health status, health seeking behaviour and healthcare utilisation of low socioeconomic status populations in urban Singapore

Autor: Kheng Hock Lee, Lian Leng Low, Catherine Qiu Hua Chan
Rok vydání: 2018
Předmět:
Adult
Male
medicine.medical_specialty
Urban Population
Health Behavior
Psychological intervention
Review
Health status
03 medical and health sciences
0302 clinical medicine
Environmental health
Health care
medicine
Humans
Prospective Studies
030212 general & internal medicine
Social determinants of health
Socioeconomic status
Health policy
Aged
Retrospective Studies
Social policy
Aged
80 and over
Singapore
Primary Health Care
Public rental housing
business.industry
lcsh:Public aspects of medicine
Health Policy
Public health
Public Health
Environmental and Occupational Health
Health services research
lcsh:RA1-1270
Middle Aged
Patient Acceptance of Health Care
Cross-Sectional Studies
Low socioeconomic
Social Class
Socioeconomic Factors
Female
Psychology
business
030217 neurology & neurosurgery
Zdroj: International Journal for Equity in Health, Vol 17, Iss 1, Pp 1-21 (2018)
International Journal for Equity in Health
ISSN: 1475-9276
DOI: 10.1186/s12939-018-0751-y
Popis: Introduction It is well-established that low socioeconomic status (SES) influences one’s health status, morbidity and mortality. Housing type has been used as an indicator of SES and social determinant of health in some studies. In Singapore, home ownership is among the highest in the world. Citizens who have no other housing options are offered heavily subsidised rental housings. Residents staying in such rental housings are characterised by low socioeconomic status. Our aim is to review studies on the association between staying in public rental housing in Singapore and health status. Methods A PubMed and Scopus search was conducted in January 2017 to identify suitable articles published from 1 January 2000 to 31 January 2017. Only studies that were done on Singapore public rental housing communities were included for review. A total of 14 articles including 4 prospective studies, 8 cross-sectional studies and 2 retrospective cohort studies were obtained for the review. Topics addressed by these studies included: (1) Health status; (2) Health seeking behaviour; (3) Healthcare utilisation. Results Staying in public rental housing was found to be associated with poorer health status and outcomes. They had lower participation in health screening, preferred alternative medicine practitioners to western-trained doctors for primary care, and had increased hospital utilisation. Several studies performed qualitative interviews to explore the causes of disparity and concern about cost was one of the common cited reason. Conclusion Staying in public rental housing appears to be a risk marker of poorer health and this may have important public health implications. Understanding the causes of disparity will require more qualitative studies which in turn will guide interventions and the evaluation of their effectiveness in improving health outcome of this sub-population of patients.
Databáze: OpenAIRE
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