Social Determinants of Health in Rural Zimbabwe

This book is based on research that focused on ten social determinants of health which are work type, asset ownership, personal income, age, distance to the primary health centre, gender, present locality, the severity of illness, education and lastly culture. The endogenous variable was health. A stratified random sampling technique was used to collect primary data from 398 observations and the data was manipulated using Stata version 11. The probit model empirical results showed that gender, distance to the primary health centre, personal income, education, culture and present location were statistically significant at a 1% level of significance. Work type was significant at the 5% level. The variables work type, gender, and education had a positive influence, while the distance to the primary health facility, personal income and present location had a negative influence on the probability of being healthy. Recommendations include building more health centres, harmonization of traditional, spiritual and conventional clinics, discouraging rural-urban migration and taxing luxury products.