The Living Conditions and Health Risks of Women in Suburbs of Elazig

AIM: The present study was conducted with the aim of defining the living conditions and health risks of women living in suburbs of Elazig city sample. METHOD: In this descriptive type of study, a total of 603 women aged 18 and older were randomly selected from Yildizbaglari and Salibaba, which are among suburbs of Elazig, were studied. Women who were in the sample group were randomly selected from the primary health care center charts in where their records have previously been saved. Both suburbia were represented in the sample according to their population. RESULTS: The mean age of women included in research was 36.64±13.61 and average income of a woman per month was 139.24±106.92 TL. Of the women 70.3% was married, 32.8% was illiterate and 42.6 had green card for health care. 92.7 % of women had no income generating work and 31.3% of women reported to that they moved from another place where they are living now. Fifty-seven percent of women were living in unreinforced masonry structure and/or wooden houses. The bathrooms and toilets were out of houses in 4.1% and 24.9%, respectively. Of the women, 18.4 % were currently smoking and exposing to one of the types of a violence. 30.3% of the women who gave birth previously had their last birth either at home or with the help of midwives. The rate of women reporting their health status as good, fair and bad were 37.8%, 37% and 25.2%, respectively. 79.9% of women did not perform regular health checks and 24.9% reported that they had a chronic disease. As the education level of women increased the rate of expressing poor health and chronic illness falled (p=0.0001). Women who migrated from another place reported their health as worse than women who were placed at the same location (p=0.007). The average monthly income of women who reported to have chronic illness was significantly lower than those women who have higher monthly income (p=0.004). CONCLUSION: The health indicators, house health conditions, education, social and economic levels of women covered in this research are low and insufficient. [TAF Prev Med Bull 2010; 9(1): 45-50]