Modelling Social Determinants of Self-Evaluated Health of Poor Older People in a Middle-Income Developing Nation (Report‪)‬

1. INTRODUCTION Factors determining the poor health status of the elderly in Jamaica can be viewed from the perspective of a socio-medical dichotomy. Such factors include poverty (resulting in one's inability to access loans, quality education and health care), lifestyle (e.g. smoking, sedentary habits, sexual and dietary practices and physical inactiveity), resulting in prostate cancer, genitourinary disorders, hypertension, diabetes mellitus and premature death. In 2005, the World Health Organization began a thrust in examining the social determinants of health, and despite that reality there is a lack of literature in this regard on the elderly poor people in Jamaica. These parameters were explored in the current research by using a sample of 1,149 elderly poor Jamaicans.