Health and vulnerability to poverty in Ghana: evidence from the Ghana Living Standards Survey Round 5

Novignon Jacob, Nonvignon Justice, Mussa Richard, Chiwaula

Description

An understanding of the complex relationship between health status and welfare is crucial for critical policy interventions. However, the focus of most policies in developing regions has been on current welfare to the neglect of forward-looking welfare analysis. The absence of adequate research in the area of future poverty or vulnerability to poverty has also contributed to the focus on current welfare. The objectives of this study were to estimate vulnerability to poverty among households in Ghana and examine the relationship between health status and vulnerability to poverty. Method The study used cross section data from the Fifth Round of the Ghana Living Standards Survey (GLSS 5) with a nationally representative sample of 8,687 households from all administrative regions in Ghana. A three-step Feasible Generalized Least Squares (FGLS) estimation procedure was employed to estimate vulnerability to poverty and to model the effect of health status on expected future consumption and variations in future consumption. Vulnerability to poverty estimates were also examined against various household characteristics. Results Using an upper poverty line, the estimates of vulnerability show that about 56% of households in Ghana are vulnerable to poverty in the future and this is higher than the currently observed poverty level of about 29%. Households with ill members were vulnerable to poverty. Moreover, households with poor hygiene conditions were also vulnerable to future poverty. The vulnerability to poverty estimates were, however, sensitive to the poverty line used and varied with household characteristics. Conclusion The results imply that policies directed towards poverty reduction need to take into account the vulnerability of households to future poverty. Also, hygienic conditions and health status of households need not be overlooked in poverty reduction strategies.

Sujets

• Poverty
• Welfare
• Ghana

Informations

• Publié par: biomed
• Publié le: 01 janvier 2012
• Nombre de lectures: 10
• Langue: English

Extrait

Novignonet al. Health Economics Review2012,2:11 http://www.healtheconomicsreview.com/content/2/1/11

R E S E A R C HOpen Access Health and vulnerability to poverty in Ghana: evidence from the Ghana Living Standards Survey Round 5 1* 23 3 Jacob Novignon, Justice Nonvignon , Richard Mussaand Levison S Chiwaula

Abstract Background:An understanding of the complex relationship between health status and welfare is crucial for critical policy interventions. However, the focus of most policies in developing regions has been on current welfare to the neglect of forwardlooking welfare analysis. The absence of adequate research in the area of future poverty or vulnerability to poverty has also contributed to the focus on current welfare. The objectives of this study were to estimate vulnerability to poverty among households in Ghana and examine the relationship between health status and vulnerability to poverty. Method:The study used cross section data from the Fifth Round of the Ghana Living Standards Survey (GLSS 5) with a nationally representative sample of 8,687 households from all administrative regions in Ghana. A threestep Feasible Generalized Least Squares (FGLS) estimation procedure was employed to estimate vulnerability to poverty and to model the effect of health status on expected future consumption and variations in future consumption. Vulnerability to poverty estimates were also examined against various household characteristics. Results:Using an upper poverty line, the estimates of vulnerability show that about 56% of households in Ghana are vulnerable to poverty in the future and this is higher than the currently observed poverty level of about 29%. Households with ill members were vulnerable to poverty. Moreover, households with poor hygiene conditions were also vulnerable to future poverty. The vulnerability to poverty estimates were, however, sensitive to the poverty line used and varied with household characteristics. Conclusion:The results imply that policies directed towards poverty reduction need to take into account the vulnerability of households to future poverty. Also, hygienic conditions and health status of households need not be overlooked in poverty reduction strategies. Keywords:Poverty, Vulnerability to poverty, Health status, Welfare, Ghana

Background According to the World Health Organization (WHO), health is a“state of complete physical, mental and social wellbeing and not merely the absence of disease or in firmity”[1]. Health shocks constitute a sudden deterior ation in the state of an individual’s health, caused by an illness and/or injury. The impact of health shocks on the welfare of individuals and households has been a major concern of policy makers. While shocks such as droughts and floods are seen to have significant effects

* Correspondence: [e-mail] 1 Department of Economics, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria Full list of author information is available at the end of the article

on welfare, health shocks are unpredictable and pose a great challenge that any household has to face [2]. Somi et al [3] noted that health shocks and their asso ciated costs have both short and long run impacts on household welfare. In the shortrun, households that ex perience health shocks are forced to substitute consump tion and production expenditure for health care. In the longrun, returns from investment in productive activities tend to reduce [3]. This implies that rational individuals will not only work towards improving their current health status but also their future state of health [4,5].Studies have shown that the occurrence of health shocks have sig nificant negative impact on household current welfare [6

© 2012 Novignon et al.; licensee Springer. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.