Overview

Money Matters for Health

The Wealth Index allows for the identification of problems particular to the poor, such as unequal access to health care, as well as those particular to the wealthy, such as, in Africa, increased risk for infection with HIV.  Developed by MEASURE DHS with partial funding from the World Bank, the DHS Wealth Index also allows governments to evaluate whether public health services, vaccination campaigns, education, and other essential interventions are reaching the poorest.

 The Wealth Index is particularly valuable in countries that lack reliable data on income and expenditures, the traditional indicators used to measure household economic status.  These income and expenditure measures, when available, are often unreliable, and even in countries that collect this data, the DHS Wealth Index has outperformed the traditional indicators.

The Wealth Index allows researchers to identify how much household economic status affects health outcomes by using both bivariate and more sophisticated multivariate methods.  For example, in a study of nine countries, MEASURE DHS researchers have been able to show that economic status is not an important risk factor for domestic violence. 

The Wealth-Health Connection: Quick Facts from DHS

• In Nigeria, children from the wealthiest households are 13 times more likely to be vaccinated than those from the poorest households. 
• In the Philippines, over 90% of women in the wealthiest households are assisted by a health professional at delivery, compared to only 25% of women in the poorest households. 
• In Tanzania, HIV prevalence is three times higher among women in the wealthiest households (11.4%) compared to those in the poorest households (2.8 %).