Regional Disparities in Chronic Illness and Acute Illness in Albania: A Multilevel Analysis of the Albanian Living Standards Measurement Survey 2002

Katie Bates, London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)
Arjan Gjonca, London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)

This paper assessed whether a north-south gradient in the health of the Albania population remained following the transition to a market economy in the 1990s. Data from the 2002 Albanian Living Standards Measurement Survey was analysed for two dependent variables - chronic illness and acute illness. Multilevel logistic variance components models were fitted by stepwise model selection. The results showed that regional disparities exist for both chronic and acute illness. The traditional pattern of regional disparities in health remains for acute illness. The coastal region, however, appears to have the highest levels of self-reported chronic illness. It is argued that the higher levels in the coastal region are not likely to be due to a fundamental change in the regional patterns of health status in Albania at present but due to the huge north-south internal migration that occurred during the 1990s.