Table 4 Characteristics of individuals with chronic diseases and bivariate association with the outcome variables by country, 2010
From: Barriers in household access to medicines for chronic conditions in three Latin American countries
Country | Nicaragua | Honduras | Guatemala |
|---|---|---|---|
Number of households that report a chronic condition | 450 | 267 | 110 |
Person with a chronic condition | |||
 Female (%) | 37.2 | 64.5 | 57.3 |
 Age [mean (SD] | 52.2 (19) | 51.5 (22) | 50.8 (19) |
 Age (%) | ◊ | ◊◊ | |
  Under 15 | 4.4 | 8.7 | 6.6 |
  16 – 40 years | 19.5 | 18.0 | 18.1 |
  41 – 64 years | 49.9 | 43.5 | 54.5 |
  65 and over | 26.2◊ | 29.8 | 20.8 |
 Not an ethnic minority (%) | 85.8 | 83.7 | 90.1◊◊ |
 Reads/writes in Spanish (%) | 78.5 | 73.9** | 74.9◊ |
 Relationship with the head of household | ** | ||
  Head of the household or spouse (%) | 80.8 | 77.7 | 82.6 |
  Son/ daughter/ grandchild / stepchild (%) | 7.1 | 12.3 | 6.4 |
  Other relative (%) | 11.5 | 10.0 | 11.0 |
  Not related (%) | .5 | 0 | 0 |
Difficulty in carrying out normal daily activities (%) | * | * | |
  None (no difficulty in carrying our normal activities) | 18.9 | 22.1 | 16.4 |
  Low | 28.1 | 24.5 | 26.8 |
  Medium | 29.8 | 24.6 | 27.3 |
  High | 14.4 | 19.5 | 24.2 |
  Extreme (cannot carry out normal activities) | 8.5 | 9.3 | 2.8 |
Chronic condition reported (%) | |||
  Hypertension | 47.1 | 45.7 | 15.5 |
  Arthritis | 39.3 | 21.7 | 13.6 |
  Diabetes | 18.0 | 18.4 | 27.3 |
  Cardiovascular diseases | 14.4 | 13.5 | 10.0 |
  Asthma | 11.6 | 13.5 | 5.5 |
  Stomach diseases | 10.7 | 11.6 | 12.7 |
  High cholesterol | 6.9 | 10.1 | 4.5 |
  Other | 14.2 | 18.4 | 13.6 |
Health status self-evaluated as good (%) | 53.8 | 43.3** | 41.0 |
Health insurance (person with chronic disease only) (%) | 17.4** | 11.0 | 13.3*,â—Šâ—Šâ—Š |
Health insurance covers medicines (person with chronic disease only) (%) | 14.4**,â—Šâ—Š | 11.0 | 11.2*,â—Šâ—Šâ—Š |