Rural-urban and richest-poorest comparison based on
BDHS 2011
The levels of the different indicators differed significantly between urban-rural and richest-poorest groups (Table 1). For
instance, urban pregnant women received adequate ANC services more often (43.3%) than rural women (18.0%). The
same indicator also differed significantly between the richest (53.1%) and poorest (9.0%) groups. At a glance, significantly
lower levels of AAM, INC, AANC, and DHF and higher levels of being underweight in the rural and poorest groups revealed
their greater level of vulnerability than the urban and richest groups. The rural and poorest groups only revealed a better
situation in terms of being overweight, because it was significantly lower in these groups. Based on the urban/rural ratio, higher disparities (deviation from 1.0) were found for AANC (ratio = 2.41), being underweight (ratio = 2.03), DHF (ratio = 2.28) and AAM (ratio = 1.59). For the overweight indicator the ratio was 0.49, which also indicated greater vulnerability in urban areas. Comparatively, disparities were stronger between the richestpoorest than the urban-rural groups. Disparities for the INC indicator were lowest for both equity markers.