Living in underprivileged neighborhoods creates a lot of stress on community members that predispose them to contracting diseases. Epidemiologist, Ana Diez-Roux, states that people living in disadvantaged neighborhoods have a 50% to 80% increased risk of developing heart disease. An improvement of health policies is required to for disadvantaged neighborhoods to
For decades, a person’s socioeconomic status or SES has affected the health care that people receive due to race and “wealth”. This problem has plagued American society because of these factors leading to many receiving inadequate health care. All of these factors for someone’s SES, has changed a lot in the health care domain that is unfair to many who are not the “ideal” and are a minority. Due to this the perception, experiences with health care waver and are different between the stages of these SES’s. No matter the status of a person they should receive the same amount of care, treatment, and closer.
By social class men aged 25-64 from routine or manual backgrounds are twice as likely to die as those from managerial or professional backgrounds. For all major causes, death rates for men aged 25 to 64 are much higher among those from manual backgrounds than those from non-manual backgrounds (managerial and professional background) and by social class men aged 25-64 from routine or manual backgrounds are twice as likely to die as those from managerial or professional backgrounds. This shows that health inequalities in social class does exists, and that people in the
One last component includes socioeconomic status of Black individuals. Those with lower income and educational levels have poorer lifestyle choices than those of higher levels (Walker, 2012). A huge problem that contributes to negative overall health in Black Americans is a lack of adequate insurance. Those of lower economic status are less likely to have insurance, and therefore less likely to receive treatment for medical problems. Even when an individual has insurance, many private insurance plans have very high out-of-pocket expenses that may deter individuals from seeing a doctor or from following up a new prescription medication (Walker, 2012).
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
Social Determinants of Health Shelly Clavis Rutgers University School of Nursing Social Determinants of Health Defined Health concerns is an issue that most organizations have formed a pact to safely deal with the challenge. The main agenda focuses on the eradication of health inequalities that may exist in most countries. It is best suited that social determinants are accorded the much-needed attention since they affect a number of people. In assessing the factors that affect one’s health, genetic disposition, personal behaviors, ability to obtain healthcare and the overall environment in which an individual resides are to be considered. Social determinants of Health are issues that deals with the conditions that people have found constructed in a society and acts as a parcel in their lives, such as; growth, age and some of the more complex systems that construct a society which include economic policies and their systems that include social norms, development goals and the basic political system that they are indulged under (World Health Organization, 2008).
Diana Kendall concludes in her article that the media plays a role in how public opinions about socio-economic classes are formed by framing their stories in misleading ways. The media takes class and social inequality and trivializes it. I think the media is portraying images in a bad manner because they are selling the idea that the only way to get ahead is to identify with the rich and powerful. Television also promotes hedonistic consumerism, TV encourages the audience to view themselves as having an equal right to purchase high end items. I found it interesting to find out that people who watch television for an extensive period of time leads to higher rates of spending and to lower savings.
The population health determinant is an ongoing discussion with the United States health care system. According to Knickman & Kovner (2015) social determinant of health (SDOH) are the “circumstances in which people are born, grow up, live, work and age, and the system in place to deal with illness” (Knickman & Kovner, 2015, p. 80). The peer-reviewed article I chose is a social determinant of health related to obesity. The ability to understand the realm of population health depends on understanding the environmental connections related to biological, behavioral, physical, access, and social determinant (Knickman & Kovner, 2015).
This implies that disparities in health continue to exist despite the efforts of the health care systems to provide patients similar access to care, which according to Woolf, and Braveman (2011), suggests that disparities originate outside the formal health care setting. The authors concluded that environmental and social variables especially income and education are often the underlying causes of illnesses and are key to understanding health
The term social determinants of health, can be defined as a ‘set of conditions in which people are born, grow up, live and work.’ These conditions include housing, education, financial security and the environment along with the healthcare service. (http://www.rcn.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0007/438838/01.12_Health_inequalities_and_the_social_determinants_of_health.pdf) These factors are affected by the amount of money, power and resources that are available at a global, national and local level. Social determinants of health are linked to health inequalities according to the World Health Organisation, health inequalities are ‘the unfair and avoidable differences in health status seen within and between countries.’
Being a racial minority or of lower social status, health and longevity could be effected because they may not have the money or insurance necessary to cover medical expenses. People in lower social status situations typically are low income families and do not have insurance. Without medical insurance, these people are unable to maintain healthy lifestyles. They do not receive preventative care which can negatively impact their longevity. People in lower income families also can not afford to eat properly.
Health outcomes among people depend upon the resources that people have to live a quality life. The variations with the money distribution and power derive such circumstances and induce inequalities in health at domestic and global levels where they have become unavoidable at present (Vega & Frenz, 2013). It has been stated that income, housing as well as environment are the major categories undermining all the factors of social determinants as mentioned earlier. Individuals, groups and communities are negatively influenced by these factors in their health status. Governments of all nations have undertaken several measures to tackle the risks arising from these conditions (Chapman, 2010).
Health inequalities are preventable and unjust differences in health status experienced by certain population groups. People in lower socio-economic groups are more likely to experience chronic ill-health and die earlier than those who are more advantaged. Health inequalities are not only apparent between people of different socio-economic groups – they exist between different genders and different ethnic groups (“Health inequalities,” n.d.). The situation in which people are born, grow, develop, work and age are affected by social, economic, environmental and most importantly political factors.
Health inequalities are a result of unequal exposure to risk factors associated with socio-economic inequalities, such as social, economic and environmental conditions (Thomson, Bambra, McNamara, Huijts, & Todd, 2016). These inequalities in health, between people belonging to different socio-economic groups, were firstly recognized in the Nineteenth century, when public health figures in different European countries dedicated their studies to these issues (Mackenbach, 2006). Villermé (1782-1863), conducted a study in Paris, and showed districts with lower socio-economic statuses had higher mortality rates compared to neighborhoods with a higher socio-economic status, and came to the conclusion that life and death are related to social circumstances
Social classes are a form of social stratification that refers to the existence of structured inequalities between individuals and groups in society. A social class is a group of people of comparable status, power and wealth which are usually classified as upper class, middle class, and lower class. For each class, there are some specific opportunities available that influence their social life. We can understand about the particularity of the chances through unequal distribution of these opportunities between individuals in social classes. In here belonging to a social class seems to be an obstacle for some individuals to obtain equal opportunity, unlike upper class people.