Lifecourse Urbanization, Social Demography, and Health Outcomes among a National Cohort of 71,516 Adults in Thailand
Table 4
Health and social outcomes by sex and lifecourse urbanisation among Thai cohort members.
Social and health outcomes
Lifecourse urbanization* (%)
Rural-rural
Rural-urban
Urban-urban
Males
Females
Males
Females
Males
Females
Physical and psychological health
Self-assessed health (“poor” or “very poor”)
3.3
4.7
4.2
5.7
4.7
5.9
Psychological distress (“most or all the time”)
5.1
6.1
5.6
6.8
6.8
7.8
Hypertension
4.3
1.8
4.8
2.2
4.5
2.2
Depression
3.4
3.0
2.9
3.8
3.4
4.1
Body Mass Index >25
16.8
7.6
18.4
6.7
26.2
12.5
Health behaviours
Smoking (current prevalence)
20.4
0.4
20.8
0.9
25.6
2.2
Alcohol (current prevalence)
8.4
0.4
10.0
0.6
10.9
0.9
Social indicators
Social trust “people can be trusted”
64.9
64.3
60.0
56.2
57.8
59.3
Social interactions—family (every week)
51.4
67.2
21.6
28.9
61.4
71.7
Social interactions—neighbours (every week)
37.0
32.9
25.3
19.5
28.5
24.4
Social support—family (a lot)
63.0
66.9
58.5
60.0
62.6
62.8
Social support—neighbours (a lot)
47.9
41.3
36.6
29.7
28.5
25.2
Urbanization group based on residence at age 12 and again when responding to the baseline questionnaire in 2005, column percents for each variable by urbanization group.