Differences in the Perception of Health among the Urban Poor Living in Two Squatter House Neighbourhoods in Ankara

Date

2018-06-01

Author

Özen, Yelda
Rittersberger, Helga İda

Metadata

Show full item record

Item Usage Stats

223
views

0
downloads

This study aims to understand the differences in conceptualizations of health and illness among the urban poor. Although the interconnections between poverty and health have been revealed many times, sometimes lumping the poor together into one homogeneous mass. But how poor individuals perceive health and illness has not received much attention sociologically, especially in the Turkish context. This study examined the urban poor’s perceptions relating to health through in-depth interviews with 40 participants in two squatter housing neighbourhoods in Altındağ, a district in Ankara. In the study, a qualitative research method was used on the basis of primary and qualitative data. To understand the respondents’ health-related perspective, their subjective health and wellbeing; their views about the causation of their illness; how they define/explain health, being healthy, the prerequisites of health and being healthy, and the causes of disease were analysed according to gender, age, poverty experiences and the state of being healthy/ill. The findings show that poverty experiences, age, gender and being permanently sick are influential on perceptions of health and illness. Four constructs were found in the sample: health as the absence of illness, health as tool or capital, health as product or consequence and health as peace and wellbeing.

URI

http://proje.akdeniz.edu.tr/mcri/mjh/8-1/MJH-21-Yelda_Ozen-Helga_Rittersberger-Tilic.pdf
https://hdl.handle.net/11511/73237

Journal

Mediterranean Journal of Humanities / Akdeniz İnsani Bilimler Dergisi

Collections

Department of Sociology, Article

Suggestions

OpenMETU
Core

The Effect of Education on Health Behaviors and Obesity in Turkey: Instrumental Variable Estimates from a Developing Country Tansel, Aysıt (2019-12-01) This study investigates the causal effect of education on health behaviors and obesity in Turkey, which is a middle-income developing country. Health Surveys of the Turkish Statistical Institute for the years 2008, 2010 and 2012 are used. The health behaviors considered are smoking, alcohol consumption, fruit and vegetable consumption, and exercise, and one health outcome, namely, obesity. We examine the causal effect of education on these health behaviors and on obesity. An instrumental variable approach i...
Correlates of Depressive and Anxiety Symptoms Among the Caregivers of Leukemic Children Demirtepe-Saygili, Dilek; Bozo Özen, Özlem (2011-03-01) This study aims to reveal correlates of depressive and anxiety symptoms among the Turkish caregivers of leukemic children (n = 100). The effects of demographic variables, satisfaction of the basic needs, performance on daily activities, and coping strategies on outcome variables were investigated by hierarchical regression. Accordingly, older age, lower reported income, higher number of other children to be looked after, lower levels of satisfaction of basic needs, and more use of emotion focused coping wer...
Socio-Economic Factors Affecting Early Childhood Health: the Case of Turkey Karaoglan, Deniz; Saraçoğlu, Dürdane Şirin (2018-06-01) In this study we examine the association between parents' socioeconomic status (SES) and childhood health in Turkey, a middle income, developing country using the 2013 round of Demographic Health Survey (DHS) data set. In our investigation, we focus on 7-to-59-month-old children and as a measure of health status, we use the height-for-age z-score, which is the measure of stunting and wasting. In order to overcome the biases with respect to age and gender, we calculate the child's standardized height measure...
Perceptions of different socio-economic status groups living in Ankara Ekici, Barış; Rittersberger Tılıç, Helga İda; Department of Sociology (2004) The aim of this study is to compare the cognitive maps of different socio-economic status groups living in Ankara. In-group and inter-group relations of divergent socio-economic status groups are the main focus of the study. In this perspective, perceptions of urban social space are examined in order to comprehend the in-group and inter-relations. Discussions are held both at city level and neighborhood level. These discussions are based on the research that was conducted between September 2003- February 20...
Factors influencing the academic achievement of the Turkish urban poor Engin Demir, Cennet (Elsevier BV, 2009-01-01) This study estimates the individual and combined effects of selected family, student and school characteristics on the academic achievement of poor, urban primary-school students in the Turkish context. Participants of the study consisted of 719 sixth, seventh, and eighth grade primary-school students from 23 schools in inner and outer city squatter settlements. The findings indicated that the set of variables comprising student characteristics, including well-being at school, scholastic activities and supp...

Citation Formats

Y. Özen and H. İ. Rittersberger, “Differences in the Perception of Health among the Urban Poor Living in Two Squatter House Neighbourhoods in Ankara,” Mediterranean Journal of Humanities / Akdeniz İnsani Bilimler Dergisi, pp. 309–333, 2018, Accessed: 00, 2021. [Online]. Available: http://proje.akdeniz.edu.tr/mcri/mjh/8-1/MJH-21-Yelda_Ozen-Helga_Rittersberger-Tilic.pdf.