Diseases of the Rich? The Social Patterning of Hypertension in Six Low- and Middle-Income Countries

Peter Lloyd-Sherlock (), Nadia Minicuci (), Barbara Corso (), John Beard (), Somnath Chatterji () and Shah Ebrahim ()
Additional contact information
Peter Lloyd-Sherlock: University of East Anglia
Nadia Minicuci: National Research Council
Barbara Corso: National Research Council
John Beard: WHO
Somnath Chatterji: WHO
Shah Ebrahim: London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

The European Journal of Development Research, 2017, vol. 29, issue 4, No 8, 827-842

Abstract: Abstract This paper identifies a general perception among development policymakers that health conditions such as hypertension and other non-communicable diseases (NCDs) disproportionately affect privileged socioeconomic groups. The paper argues that this framing of the issue is derived more from established discourses and institutional dynamics than from evidence. The paper then assesses the validity of this view, with reference to the social patterning of hypertension in China, Ghana, India, Mexico, the Russian Federation and South Africa. Using data for adults aged 50+ from the WHO Survey of Ageing and Adult Health, it finds the social patterning of hypertension prevalence varies markedly between the study countries, but that hypertension awareness and control rates are generally lower for less-advantaged groups. This reveals a need to challenge misleading representations of NCD pandemics and for interventions that specifically target the poor.

Keywords: health; hypertension; equity; older people; policy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1057/s41287-016-0063-2 Abstract (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:eurjdr:v:29:y:2017:i:4:d:10.1057_s41287-016-0063-2

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/journal/41287/PS2

DOI: 10.1057/s41287-016-0063-2

Access Statistics for this article

The European Journal of Development Research is currently edited by Spencer Henson and Natalia Lorenzoni

More articles in The European Journal of Development Research from Palgrave Macmillan, European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI) Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().