Environmental justice - the association between socioeconomic status and adult health in Sarawak / Abdul Qaiyuum Sahdi

Background, Environmental justice is a degree of fairness to all people in terms of quality of life such as levels of income, laws, legislations and degree of development. Evidence of placement of polluting facilities at lower class population or lower income groups are in the area where there are in a higher environmental risks. Objective, The main objective of the study was to assess whether health effect varied by household income. Methods, A cross-sectional study was conducted on the participants using purposive sampling because of the inclusive and exclusive criteria. Questionnaire was used in the study to identify the demographic data, the level of income and health status, while interview was done to know the purpose of their stay in Kuching or in Samarahan. Spearman correlation was used for the non-parametric data to identify the correlation between health status and level of household income. Independent t-test was also used to identify the means of the household income of the participants in each area. Results, There are no significance (p>0.05) and negligible correlation (r=0.016) between income and health status for participants in Kuching. For Samarahan, there is significant relationship (p<0.05) and negligible correlation (r=-0.205) as well. The independent t-test results shows that there were significant difference for both health status and household income with (p< 0.05) Conclusion, Environmental justice is a serious issue in the community because of the results that have been collected. Laws and legislation needs to be enacted more sternly to make sure that there are no double treatments in varying communities.