Background: Multi-morbidity and its burden on the health systems of low- and middle-income countries is on the increase worldwide. This health challenge is particularly relevant to South Africa with its emergent epidemic of non-communicable disease. This paper investigates gender-based inequalities in non-communicable disease multi-morbidity in South African adults.
Methods: The study applies decomposition analysis to data from wave 5 of South Africa’s nationally representative National Income Dynamics Study. Non-linear Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition is employed to determine how compositional and behavioural effects of various covariates contribute to gender differences in multi-morbidity. Erreygers concentration indices are constructed for men and
women separately. Wagstaff decomposition is used to establish the contribution of various factors to these gender-based income inequalities in multi-morbidity.