Does More Education Always Lead to Better Health? Evidence from Rural Malaysia

Table 1

Health and sociodemographic characteristics of working population (citizens) by sex differences in Segamat, Malaysia.

Variable	Female		Male		Total
	Number	%	Number	%	Number	Col. %
Residents sex	10,981	51.9	10,167	48.1	21,148	N/A
Age categories
15–24 y	2,818	49.8	2,836	50.2	5,654	26.7
25–38 y	2,608	50.7	2,536	49.3	5,144	24.3
39–50 y	2,822	53.8	2,425	46.2	5,247	24.8
51–60 y	2,733	53.6	2,370	46.4	5,103	24.1
Ethnicity
Malay	7,378	51.9	6,838	48.1	14,216	69.2
Chinese	1,925	53.4	1,678	46.6	3,603	17.5
Indian	1,224	54.1	1,038	45.9	2,262	11.0
Indigenous	234	51.5	220	48.5	454	2.2
Marital status
Single	3,179	43.5	4,134	56.5	7,313	34.5
Married	7,019	54.6	5,829	45.4	12,848	60.8
Separated/living apart	61	60.4	40	39.6	101	0.5
Divorced	285	85.3	49	14.7	334	1.6
Widowed	429	79.7	109	20.3	538	2.5
Other	8	57.1	6	42.9	14	0.1
Education level
Never attended school	361	65.9	187	34.1	548	2.8
Attended but did not finish primary school	570	58.3	407	41.7	977	5.0
Finished primary school	2,023	57.0	1,526	43.0	3,549	18.2
Started high school	651	46.4	752	53.6	1,403	7.2
Finished form 3	1,498	48.5	1,591	51.5	3,089	15.8
Finished form 5	3,456	49.1	3,577	50.9	7,033	36.1
Finished form 6	325	62.6	194	37.4	519	2.7
Started college (diploma)	220	51.4	208	48.6	428	2.2
Finished college (diploma)	457	50.8	443	49.2	900	4.6
Started university (diploma)	273	64.2	152	35.8	425	2.2
Finished university	355	56.6	272	43.4	627	3.2
Self-assessed health status
Very good	3,555	51.2	3,391	48.8	6,946	32.8
Good	6,249	51.9	5,797	48.1	12,046	57.0
Satisfactory	990	55.1	806	44.9	1,796	8.4
Unsatisfactory	172	51.5	162	48.5	334	1.6
Critical	8	61.5	5	38.5	13	0.1
No response	7	53.9	6	46.2	13	0.1
Type of health insurance
Company	388	31.9	830	68.1	1,218	5.8
Self	2,036	50.0	2,038	50.0	4,074	19.3
None	8,416	54.1	7,152	45.9	15,568	73.6
Other	141	49.0	147	51.0	288	1.3
Chronic disease burden
No chronic disease	7,690	50.56	7,519	49.44	15,209	71.9
1 chronic disease	2,173	53.77	1,868	46.23	4,041	19.1
2 chronic diseases	755	58.94	526	41.06	1,281	6.1
3 chronic diseases	246	58.85	172	41.15	418	2.0
4 chronic diseases	80	59.26	55	40.74	135	0.6
≥5 chronic diseases	37	57.81	27	42.19	64	0.3
Area of occupation
Agriculture	309	20.5	1,198	79.5	1,507	18.0
Business/management	13	52.0	12	48.0	25	0.3
Construction	11	3.3	319	96.7	330	3.9
Education	966	54.0	823	46.0	1,789	21.3
Engineering, technology/maintenance	22	5.4	386	94.6	408	4.9
Finance	60	52.6	54	47.4	114	1.4
Food service/hospitality	214	59.3	147	40.7	361	4.3
Government office	115	26.0	328	74.0	443	5.3
Information technology	14	26.4	39	73.6	53	0.6
Laborer/informal work	152	31.9	325	68.1	477	5.7
Legal profession	10	58.8	7	41.2	17	0.2
Manufacturing/factory	163	38.6	259	61.4	422	5.0
Media/creative design	12	21.4	44	78.6	56	0.7
Other	60	16.9	295	83.1	355	4.2
Sales retail/services	430	52.1	395	47.9	825	9.8
Health services	176	69.3	78	30.7	254	3.0
Security services	48	10.6	405	89.4	453	5.4
Transport/logistics	6	1.2	498	98.8	504	6.0
Subdistrict
Bekok	1,372	49.8	1,382	50.2	2,754	16.5
Chaah	2,452	53.8	2,106	46.2	4,558	27.2
Gemereh	1,222	53.1	1,078	46.9	2,300	13.7
Jabi	1,879	52.9	1,674	47.1	3,553	21.2
Sungai Segamat	1,835	51.3	1,741	48.7	3,576	21.4