Health Inequalities Essay

Health inequalities, task 2: In this essay I will provide sociological analysis of the underlying reasons for the differences in health and provide explanations and reasons of health inequalities. According to the map/graph (I provided), there are variations in health status according to social class, gender and geographical region in the UK. For example, the number of premature death are much higher in Scotland then elsewhere, for both men and women.

Lower socioeconomic groups have the poorest health and shortest life spans, they have disadvantages of heart disease, chronic health problems, as well as communicable diseases. Healthy lifestyles include use of good personal habits such as eating properly, getting enough rest, exercising, and avoiding practices like smoking, abusing alcohol, and taking drugs. Its typical for upper and middle classes who have the resources to do so. Lifestyles of the poor are subjected to crowded living conditions, poor diet, secondary housing, low levels of income and education and increase exposure to violence, alcoholism, and problem drinking, smoking, and drug abuse are all factors of the poor socioeconomic

In chapter 7 we read about social class and health inequalities and how the different types of social class have an impact on one in our society. In this chapter, we discussed and focused on many important topics such as social class, social structure, and socio-economic status. Readers gained a better knowledge on those topics and how it relates to health inequalities. One new fact I learned after reading this chapter is how an individual who has a good education and well-paying job can live longer when compared to one who doesn’t. This chapter once again like many other chapters read before in this course, talked about the inequalities between the rich and the poor.

Life in the time of late 1800’s was marked by rapid change, due to the effect of factors such as urbanization, the flourishing of America’s big businesses, the enormous advances made in technology, as well as other things. Due to the numerous advancements made in technology, such as developments in heating, the invention of elevators, as well as innovations in transportation, urban growth was immense in the late 1800’s. Due to these factors, people from all around America, as well as immigrants from other countries, were drawn to city life in the United States. A major challenge that people faced in their day to day lives in America during the late 1800’s were undesirable conditions in the workplace.

There are links to poverty and the poor health of an individual. Health disparities can be very detrimental to someone’s health. Some causes of health disparities can be the following: heart disease, diabetes, obesity, elevated blood pressure levels, HIV, and low birth weight. (Minnesota, 2013) Just these health issues alone could lead to more health risks.

1. What does the term health disparities mean? Health disparities are preventable differences in the burden of disease, injury, violence, or opportunities to achieve optimal health that are experienced by socially disadvantaged populations. Populations can be defined by factors such as race, ethnicity, gender, education, or income, disability, geographic location orientation.

Over the course of the 20th century, many significant changes were conceived and executed by the field of public health. These improvements are no less relevant today, and from the beginning, they have aided us all. However, there is a major achievement which underscores the safety and good health of the historically downtrodden: bettering work conditions for labourers in need of social change. Not only was this movement important for public health, but it gave the exploited working class a voice, allowing the affected public to organise and fight for better conditions themselves. Before any work was done in favour of making labour safer, manual work was a very dangerous job.

Introduction People hope and seeks long and healthier lives. Thus, health care is the act of taking preventative or necessary medical procedures to improve people well-being. Improvement or preventative may be done with surgery, the administering of medicine, or other alterations in a person 's lifestyle. These services are usually offered through a health care system made up of hospitals and physicians. Although, the health care system is set up to reduce or to prevent disease etc., there is a gap or disparity in the US health care system.

To accomplish advancements in health systems, it is essential to strive to eradicate major fatal diseases and to manage poverty. Life expectancies are considered on a global level concerning age, sex, race, ethnicity, socioeconomic class, region as well as the level of education, resulting in alarming statistical data. The objective for enhanced health systems incorporates decreasing the rates of morality. The social gradient greatly contributes to social inequalities around the world. Social conditions, for example, the environment in

These disparities that exist in all the factors have to be eliminated with suitable control measures. Regulations on health care services and their access has to be made more

Social determinants of health depend on social, environmental and economic conditions in societies (EuroHealthNet, n.d.). These factors and conditions, together with the age, sex and hereditary factors of a person, are interlinked and influence the health status of the individual, because a person is born, grows, lives, works and ages in these conditions (Equity Action, 2010). The living and working conditions include agriculture and food production, education, work and environment, unemployment, water and sanitation, health care services and housing (Marmot, Health inequalities in the EU, 2013, p. 40). In addition, it is clear that equal access to good health is hard to achieve, and it can be done so, if disadvantages are assessed, and that necessary measures should be taken (Stegeman, Costongs, & Needle,

Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Healthy People (2015), these factors underlie preventable disparities in health status and disease outcomes. Poor health outcomes are often the result of the interaction between individuals and their social and physical environment. Policies that result in changes to the social and physical environment can affect entire populations over extended periods of time, while simultaneously helping people to change individual-level behavior. Improving the conditions in which people are born, live, work, and age will ensure a healthier population, thereby improving national productivity, security, and prosperity through a healthier nation. The importance of social determinants of health is growing initiatives to address these determinants of health.

This essay aims to identify and evaluate the inequalities in health care in different areas of society, namely disability and gender. Firstly, it is important to understand what we mean by health inequalities. It is commonly understood that health inequality refers to unjust differences in the health status, usually preventable, between different groups, populations or individuals. The existence of such inequalities is attributed to the unequal distributions of social, environmental and economic conditions within societies. Such conditions determine the risk of individuals getting ill, their ability to prevent sickness, as well as opportunities to access to the right treatments.

Introduction There is a rising concern on the topic of health inequalities, which refers to the differences in health status or in the distribution of health determinants between different population groups (World Health Organization, n.d.). Differences in mobility and mortality can be caused by different determines such as gender role, social classes, age, etc. This article will focus on how gender roles and social classes affect one’s health and how they contribute to health inequality as well as reasons for healthcare professionals to be sensitive on this topic. Analysis First and foremost, there factors affect health which is the state of complete physical, social and mental well-being instead of just the absence of disease (World Health Organization, n.d.).

This is why primary health care is of uttermost importance, the nurse in the community must try to help prevent, educate and overcome these inequalities and provide the highest standards of health for all, which is not based on want but need. For the