Application of Health Expectancy Research on Working Male Population in Bangladesh

Abstract

Lower quality of life and more work-loss days for the workforce are barriers for economic development in Bangladesh. Using nationally representative data—the Bangladesh Demographic and Health Surveys for the 2004–2007 period, we examined the prevalence of diseases (asthma, diabetes, heart problems, high blood pressure, jaundice/hepatitis, malaria/fever, tuberculosis, and other) that prevented ever-married male workers from doing their regular activities in Bangladesh, and we examined changes in partial work-loss free life expectancy (WLFLE). The study found improvements in the mean number of work-loss days as well as in WLFLE; male workers at age 30 in 2007 expected 212 days more WLFLE than male workers of the same age in 2004. Other diseases prevented 17.8 per cent of male workers in 2004 and 9.1 per cent of male workers in 2007 from doing their normal work. Malaria/fever prevented 14.4 per cent and 11.5 per cent of male workers in 2004 and 2007, respectively, from doing their normal work. In both years, of all the diseases, the other diseases category and malaria/fever were found to be the major causes preventing Bangladeshi male workers from doing their normal work. This study recommends taking action against malaria/fever so that people can continue working without health problems or illness, and it recommends identifying other diseases which cause work-loss days. It suggests collecting data for both the males and females in a consistent manner by keeping the same questions with the same wording, order, and age groups consistent over time.

KEYWORDS:

• work-loss free life expectancy
• diseases
• demographic and health surveys
• Bangladesh

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to MEASURE DHS for providing them with the data set. In addition, they would like to acknowledge all individuals and institutions in Bangladesh who were involved in the implementation of the 2004 and 2007 BDHS. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the annual REVES meeting (The 24th International Conference on Health Expectancy) in Taichung, Taiwan in May 2012. The authors would also like to thank the participants of the REVES meeting and the anonymous reviewers for their thoughtful insights.

Notes

1. BDHS have been conducted in 1993–1994, 1996–1997, 1999–2000, 2004, 2007 and 2011. Health problems/injury-related questions were introduced in the men's questionnaire beginning in 1999–2000, but were not introduced in the women's questionnaire. The questions on work-loss days were dropped from the BDHS 2011 questionnaire. The order of the questions pertinent to our interests in 1999–2000 was completely different than the order in 2004 and 2007. Therefore, we decided not to include the 1999–2000 data.

2. The age-specific standard life tables for the Bangladeshi male population for 2004 and 2007 pertain to the total male population irrespective of marital status and working status. Since according to the Sullivan method (Sullivan, 1971) one should use the proportion of work-loss days for the same population as that in the standard period life tables, we looked at the percentage distribution of males by marital status in 2004 and 2007 from the 2004 and 2007 BDHS to check whether all males aged 15–54 were ever-married. We found that after age 34 almost all men were ever-married. Only 9.5 per cent and 13.2 per cent of males in the 30–34 age group were unmarried at the time of the surveys. But the percentage of unmarried males in the 25–29 age group was about 30 per cent at the time of both surveys. To maximize usage of the survey data, therefore, we analysed data for ever-married males 30–54 years old. We assumed that the impact of including the 30–34 age group would be minimal for our analyses.