The Relationship between some indicators related with women and children health and socioeconomic, sociodemographic variables in Turkey

157 SUMMARY The Relationship between Some Indicators Related with Women and Children Health and Socioeconomic, Sociodemographic Variables in Turkey The purpose of this thesis is to put forward geographical, socioeconomic, socio demographic, and health related inequalities in Turkey through evaluating the health indicator data gathered by various government institutions. This study is an ecological desing work. The environment of the study covers the data of 80 provinces of Turkey. The data were assessed and analysed through SPSS program, and uni-variate ( t and Mann Whitney U test ), and multi-variate (multiple linear regression ) analysis were done. In this study, mortality rates (infant mortality rate, under five mortality rates, the mortality rate of the ones under 45 years old ), fertility rates, malnutrition rate of children, the life expectancy at fertility, the rates of health service use, environment ( the rate of the population with the access to healthy drinking water, air pollution ) variables and factors that have influence on these variables were assessed. Both the uni-variate and multi-variate analysis showed that variables like education, income, environment ( the rate of the population with the access to healthy drinking water) have negative relationship with.mortality, fertility, nutrition rate and, health service use and environmental conditions. The most influential independent variable on the dependant variables is the literacy rate of the women. As the literacy rate decreases all of the dependant variables worsen. According to the results of this study, general fertility and total fertility rate decrease with the high rate of the literacy of women. Though the eastern provinces showed higher mortality rates than western provinces in the univariate analysis. We could not detect a difference between the regions in terms of fertility and mortality. When they were controlled with female literacy and income rate in the multivariate analysis.158 In the eastern provinces, the rates of general fertility, the total fertility, infant mortality, and the under five mortality rates were found to be higher then the western provinces, univariate analysis. Low female literacy rates in the eastern provinces increases infant mortality rate, children under five mortality rates, the mortality rate of the ones under 45 years old. These results also show us that levels of the socioeconomic status, education and income are parallel with the health status of the communities. The people with a low level of education have low income and as a consequence, they have a low nutritional and housing level resulting in unhealthy environmental conditions, and can not benefit from the health service enough. This situation causes increase in the fertility, disease, and mortality rates. This study also showed that with the decrease of the rate of the population that have the access to healthy drinking water, the rate of population who are not satisfied with the availability for the health service increases. These results indicate that the people with low income and education live in unhealthy conditions, they do not have social security, and health service benefits. It is also shown that the level of women education determines level of income, child nutrition, and infrastructure. As the level of income increases, the ratio of under five mortality, infant mortality and low nutritional status decreases. The results show that when the level of income, education, life expectancy increases, total fertility rate decreases. As the immigration rate increases, rural and urban human development index ( income, education, life expectancy) increases. When the number of infant per midwife decreases, the level of income, education, life expectancy increases. When the population per health office decreases, the level of income, education, life expectancy also increases. When the relation between the hospital bed number per 10.000 person and rural development index is evaluated it is shown that as the hospital bed number per 10.000 person decreases, the rural development index increases. The reason for this type of relation is thought to be the fact that the data for bed numbers are not the real and active ones and questionable political decisions for the places to construct hospitals. The dominance of the female literacy rate on determining the mortality, fertility and health services opportunities is a fact. So, public resources should have to be directed increasingly to the female education in Turkey. The increasing level of female education will positively influence the health level of the population.