Browsing by Author "Doolan, Katherine"

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    Experience of Violence and Socioeconomic Position in South Africa: A National Study
    (Public Library of Science, 2007) Doolan, Katherine; Ehrlich, Rodney; Myer, Landon
    BACKGROUND: Violence is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in South Africa and needs to be researched from a public health perspective. Typically in violence research, socioeconomic position is used in the analysis to control for confounding. Social epidemiology approaches this variable as a primary determinant of interest and is used in this research to better understand the aetiology of violence in South Africa. We hypothesised that measures of socioeconomic position (employment, education and household wealth) would be inversely related to violence at the individual and household levels. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Data came from the1998 South African Demographic and Health Survey (SADHS). Measures of socioeconomic position used were employment, education and household wealth. Eighty-eight people (0.2%) received treatment for a violent injury in the previous 30 days and 103 households (0.9%) experienced a violent death in the previous year. Risk factors for violence at the individual level included employment (41% of those who experienced violence were employed vs. 27% of those who did not, p = 0.02), and education (those who experienced violence had on average, one year more education than those who did not, p = 0.04). Belonging to a household in the wealthiest quintile was protective against violence (OR: 0.32; 95% CI: 0.12-0.89). In contrast, at the household level all three measures of socioeconomic position were protective against the experience of a violent death. The only association to persist in the multivariate analysis was that between the wealth of the household and violence at the individual level. Conclusions/Significance Our hypothesis was supported if household wealth was used as the measure of socioeconomic position at the individual level. While more research is needed to inform the conflicting results observed between the individual and household levels, this analysis has begun to identify the disparities across the socioeconomic structure with respect to violent outcomes.
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    A quantitative analysis of socioeconomic position and the occurrence of violence in South Africa
    (2006) Doolan, Katherine; Ehrlich, Rodney; Myer, Landon
    Violence is the second leading cause of premature death and one of the leading causes of morbidity in South Africa (Bradshaw et aI., 2003). Unlike many public health problems, the causes of violence are predominantly socioeconomic (rather than biological) in nature. The intersection between violence and varying measures of socioeconomic position is one that deserves specific attention in South Africa due to high levels of violence in the country, the social nature of violence, and the high degree of socioeconomic inequities existing in the country. The aim of this dissertation is to identify risk factors for violence and the degree to which socioeconomic position (operationalised as employment, education and household wealth) plays a role in determining rates of violence within South Africa.