The pattern and relationship between deprivation and health regencies and municipalities in East Java, 1994

This study attempts to develop some social indicators related to the concept of deprivation that are relevant to less developed countries such as Indonesia by adopting the readily available data of the 1994 Susenas core of East Java. Specifically, the main objectives of this study are to develop two indices, an index of deprivation and an index of poor health status, to examine the geographical patterns of deprivation, and to examine the nature of the relationship between material deprivation and health among regencies and municipalities in East Java in 1994, differentiated between urban and rural areas.

The indicators of deprivation adopted here have been divided into two groups: material deprivation (nine indicators) and social deprivation (two indicators). The study found that among these eleven indicators, six of them are significantly associated with relative poverty and poor health and, therefore, can effectively represent the deprivation: (i) illiterate adults; (ii) a lack of access to electricity at home; (iii) poor toilet facilities; (iv) poor utilisation of health services; (v) relative poverty; and (vi) poor usage of leisure time. The findings of the study also suggest that, in general, the problems of deprivation tend to be more serious in rural than in urban areas, although to some extent urban areas have more significant problems than rural areas.

In terms of material deprivation, among regencies and municipalities in East Java in 1994, the most deprived region was found in Madura island and some regencies with high concentrations of Maduranese in south-western East Java, such as Lumajang, Bondowoso, Situbondo, and Probolinggo. The central region had a high level of material well-being, although it tends not to be equally distributed between one area and another; most of the urban and rural areas among kotamadya (municipalities) existing in

this region are included in the least deprived stratum, but some urban areas among regencies in this region are not.

The statistical analysis performed in this study has indicated that the relationship between the index of material deprivation, on the one hand, and the index of poor health and each individual indicator of poor health, on the other, is particularly significant in rural areas of East Java. It means that the index of deprivation can be used to explain the inequality in health among regencies and municipalities in East Java, 1994.