'Discuss and explain what social inequalities in health care are and include how they come about and manifest in health care.'
Introduction:
Social inequalities in health can be defined as the extent to which there are differences, in the standard of wellbeing, amongst a group or population. These differences can be related to people’s lifestyles and working environments. They are deemed ‘inequalities’ because they are classed as being avoidable or unnecessary (WHO 2016). In England, the cost of treating problems arising from health inequalities has been estimated to cost at least £5.5 billion annually, demonstrating how inequalities have come to manifest in healthcare and how they are a public health issue (Frontier Economics, 2010). Public Health England (2010) defines public health as being an initiative brought
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To understand how to reduce these imparities, they need to be identified. The purpose of this essay is to explore what these inequalities are and how they have come to manifest in health care. This will be done through addressing subjects such as economic status, accessibility for service users, gender and ethnicity.
How have Inequalities Come to Manifest in Healthcare?
There are clear differences in quality of health between social classes. In England there is a large gap between the wealthiest in the population and those with who are most deprived. The impact of poverty on a populations standard of living has been demonstrated through data collected by the Office for National Statistics (2011). It has been highlighted in their reports that people living the poorest areas
In comparison 36.9% of the people in the ward have no qualification compared to 23.2% in Leeds, which is a lot below Leeds and national level. (Census, 2011). Therefore Graham (2009) suggested that to reduce health inequalities there is the need to put policies that allow people who might have poorer health to live in more well-off areas. WHO (2008) also stated that to recognize why inequalities continue to exist , we need to identify health beliefs, determinants and dimensions of health which affect individual whether they consider themselves to be healthy or
Health Care in the US is arguably available to all who seek it but not everybody has had the same experience and treatment when walking through the doors of a healthcare facility. In many cases, people are discriminated against due to their gender, race/ethnicity, age, and income and are often provided with minimal service. Differences between groups in health coverage, access to care, and quality of care is majorly affected through these disparities. Income is a major factor and can cause groups of people to experience higher burden of illness, injury, disability, or mortality relative to another group.
The Marmot Review 2010 involves the strategies for reducing health inequalities in England in relation to Global Commission on Social Determinants of Health (GCDH) and this report indicated that people who are at the lower level of socio-economic factors such as unemployed, unskilled workers, people that living in overcrowded housing, homeless people and people with limited education might find it difficult to access healthcare needs because they will always need to rely on welfare state benefits and support to survive (Goldberg, et al.
Inequities are unfair differences in levels of the health status and opportunities between groups in a society. These inequities are influenced by determinants and factors that impact groups or individuals within that society. Individuals located in Rural and Remote areas and the Aboriginal And Torres Strait Islanders’ people all suffer inequities relative to sociocultural, socioecomic and environmental determinants. Roughly 34% of Australians live in rural and remote areas.
On the issue of disparity which has been way back history, the fact about this, is that health care provide on their part are involved in biased and stereotyping which in turn affects the way they relate and treat their patient. On the other hand, it is a problem for minorities to have access to care, even if they are insured on the same level with whites. Factors such as cultural familiarity, language and geography are all barriers that affects minorities, likewise policy, legal and regulations do affect minorities to receive quality care. Therefore, disparities in health among ethnic, socioeconomic, and gender groups in the united states has been a long-standing issue.
The Equality Act helps the NHS discriminate the inequalities within the health care profession. Training on The Equality Act is often given with the first session being very in depth and then staff should receive refresher courses every year. Throughout hospitals there should be wide variety of resources advertising The Equality Act such as posters, leaflets and TV adverts. There are 9 protected characteristics which are: • Age • Disability • Gender (male/female) • Gender reassignment • Marriage and civil partnership • Pregnancy and maternity • Race • Religion or belief • Sexual orientation Equality within the healthcare profession plays a huge importance throughout its structure, the equality act ‘simplifies, strengthens and harmonises’
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.
Social Justice Applied to Healthcare Social justice, the fair distribution of resources amongst the population, strives towards bringing equality to all, in this case, in the form of healthcare. The reasoning behind healthcare reform stems from distributive justice, which attempts to correct the disparity between readily accessible healthcare for the insured and the unavailability under and uninsured (Lachman, 2012, p. 249). The passage of the Affordable Care Act in 2010, opened up access to basic healthcare for a wider range of the population, many who had no healthcare access previously (Kelly, 2014, p. 1). With the wide distribution of healthcare access brings the duty of responsibility. This paper will explore and present the rationale
1. Describe and discuss the social determinants associated with the case you have chosen. A large collection of evidence has been accumulating over the past two decades, revealing the impact that social factors have on health at both individual and population levels [1]. This is not to say that medical has no impact on health outcomes, rather that evidence suggests medical care is not the only contributor when determining who is more vulnerable to becoming injured or ill [2].
Kaiser Family Foundation (2012), health and health care despairs refer to differences in the health and health care between population groups. The health disparity generally refers to a higher burden of illness, injury, disability, or mortality experienced by one population group relative to another. A health care disparity typically refers to the differences between groups in health coverage, access to care, and quality of care. While disparities are commonly viewed through the lens of race and ethnicity, they occur across many dimensions, including socioeconomic status, age, location, gender, disability status, and sexual orientation (HKFF,
Definition of Health Inequity What are health inequities or inequalities? Health inequities are preventable health inequalities in many types of people among countries or not and different kinds of societies. The risk of illness and the actions of people can be controlled by social and economic conditions. Alterations in health status or in the dispersal of health determinants between different population groups can define health inequalities.
Understanding the social determinants of health are important because they can help the physician or nurse determine why the patient is ill and why they are vulnerably to the illness (Baum, cited in Keleher & MacDougall 2016, p.19-20). The social determinants of health, like people living in low socioeconomic areas, can greatly affect people’s health and the health care they receive (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) 2016). A statistic, as stated by AIHW (2016), says that the overall death rate from 2009-2011, in Australia, would have been reduced by 13% if all Australian lived in the highest socioeconomic areas. Because of this statistic, I believe a person in a low socioeconomic area should have the same access to health care as someone who lives in a high socioeconomic area, as said by Kanizay
TASK 1 What are the social determinants of health and how these determinants are linked to Inequality in health outcomes between different social groups? The social determinants of health ranges from factors such as the wider socio-economic context as seen in fig 1, inequality; poverty; social exclusion; socio-economic position; income; public policies; health services; employment; education; housing; transport; the built environment; health behaviours or lifestyles; social and community support networks and stress. The social determinants of health are the circumstances in which people live and work and these circumstances are shaped by economics, policies and politics. It is the duty of the government tackle this social determinant of health
In addition, a large body of research suggests that health may also be affected by the distribution of economic resources within a society (e.g., Kawachi & Kennedy, 1999; Wilkinson, 2006; Wilkinson & Pickett, 2008). The average health of a population is likely to decline with higher inequality levels. In other words, health tends to be better in more egalitarian societies. There are a variety of mechanisms through which income inequality may affect health. In their comprehensive review of the studies on the link between income inequality and health, Kawachi & Kennedy (1999) outline three main pathways.
Introduction Health disparity is something that can easily be witnessed among all society around that globe. Understand what factors cause these disparities can act as a giant step toward containing them. When societies or nations work to identify and address the factors that result to health disparities among racial, ethnic, geographic, socioeconomic, and other groups, this eventually helps in bridging the barrier to health equality (CDC, 2013). As we best understand, peripheral nations are the most vulnerable as health is concerned.