Discuss the Factors Likely to Influence Current and Future Patterns of Health in the Uk.

Socio-economic class or socio-economic status (SES) may refer to mixture of various factors such as poverty, occupation and environment. It is a way of measuring the standard and quality of life of individuals and families in society using social and economic factors that affect health and wellbeing ( Giddens and Sutton, 2013). Cockerham (2007 p75) argues: ‘Social class or socioeconomic status (SES) is the strongest predictor of health, disease causation and longevity in medical sociology.’ Research in the 1990s, (Drever and Whitehead, 1997) found out that people in higher SES are generally healthier, and live longer than those in lower SES.

Since the launch it has moved onto targeting parents of 1-4 years (Department of Health, 2009). The main aim of this campaign was to ‘eat more, move more, live longer’. Change 4 Life was published alongside Healthy lives, Healthy people: A call to action on obesity in England (Department of Health, 2011). The Change 4 Life programme will provide information, products and tools for individuals and families wanting to improve their lifestyle (Department of Health, 2011). Change 4 Life (Department of Health, 2009) state that if trends continue it is estimated that one in ten of the adult population will be a healthy weight by 2050. This therefore shows how important the Change 4 Life campaign is. At the same time it will influence the behaviours of todays children, leading to a steady decrease in the prevalance of obesity (Department of Health,

According to the World Health Organization (WHO, 1978), health can be defined not only in terms of absence of disease, injury or infirmity, but also, as a state of mental, physical and social well-being. Over the last decades, many studies have emphasized the role of social circumstances on health status. The tight link between health and a wide range of socioeconomic, environmental and demographics factors have been increasingly recognized and proffer an alternative perspective on how to consider public health, social justice and even restructuring of the health care system (Daniels et. al., 2004). The increasingly acknowledgement that health is also a result of cumulative experience of social conditions and exposure to environmental

Social class helps to deter the reasons for individual’s health and ill health. Social classes also help with understanding health and ill health, this is done through the basis of individuals lifestyle class, for example the lower class who work in the worst

The campaign we will be presenting is about obesity. In Sandwell, especially Smethwick; the number of children who are considered obese is 893 and the local value for this number is 25.9 where the England average is 19.0 and England’s worst is 26.5 ( as you can see the Sandwell figure is very close to England’s worst). These children are much more likely to develop health problems

M2- Use different sociological perspectives to discuss patterns and trends of health and illness in TWO different social groups.

In the 21st century obesity within the UK was starting to become a major concern, after the issue of smoking had been dealt with. In order to get a handle on the growing problem of obesity, the prime minister at the time released a new piece of legislation otherwise known as “Choosing Health: Making healthy choices easier”. This piece of legislation was designed with the

Family up bringing/background: If a child or person (adult) has a poor upbringing or background, they may be at risk of certain diseases, if they lived in a house where it was poor condition (damp, mould on the walls or floors, the mother or father not washing the child’s clothes, leaving a baby in a dirty nappy) all these can cause problems, also if the family live in a high crime rate area, the child/children may be influenced by older peers/friends to commit crimes and offences, the influenced children may become criminals, and give the impression when they have children of their own that stealing

M2 – Discuss the factors likely to influence current and future patterns of health in the UK

classes are perhaps not as clear as they used to be. But it is just as

This essay will discuss ways in which a person’s socioeconomic class and his/her social situation can have an impact on his/her health, using examples. We believe that there is a direct link between socioeconomic/social class and health (Adler et al. 1994). I will be defining the key terms: socioeconomic and health, social class then proceed to discuss about how poverty, income, employability, environment and housing can impact on a person’s social situation and their health.

In line with the majority of other developed countries, the United Kingdom (UK) has offered its citizens a universal health care system that is free at the point of service. Funded primarily by taxation, the system is popular and efficient. However, along with most other health care systems around the world, it faces a series of challenges if it is to maintain viability, in the twenty-first century. These issues include; long waiting times, an aging population, funding challenges and the increasing cost of technology.

This essay will be discussing the extent to which social class and poverty affects health and illness. Firstly, what is social class? Each person’s perception of social class can be different; is social class defined by a person’s accent, the area they live in, or something as simple as their income? Project Britain describes social class as “The grouping of people by occupations and lifestyle”. (Cress, 2014). To find social class Sociologists group people according to common factors, they compare people and various criteria can be conveniently used to place people in social groups or classes. Next we ask the question what determines a person’s health, the NHS defines health as “Physical and mental, it is the absence of disease”. (NHS 2017).

In order for me to get a good grasp on what Scotland is lacking in health, I wanted to look at the demographics of each health aspect and what population it affected the most. Because we are specifically targeting workplace wellness programs, I focused most of my attention on the population of people from the age of sixteen to the age of sixty-five (the average retirement age in Scotland is sixty-five). There are six different dimensions of health that contribute to someone 's overall well being. These dimensions are: occupational, spiritual, intellectual, physical, emotional and environmental. However, these fall under different health behaviors. The top health behavior problems in most countries are alcohol consumption, smoking, physical activity, diet and mental health. Through doing some research, I was able to get a hold of a book called The Scottish Health Survey. This book looks into these different health behaviors and shows how problematic each one was as of 2015.

Rowlingson (2011) agrees with Wilkinson and Pickett that there is indeed a strong correlation between income and health and social problems. In her report she includes the ‘Marmot Review’ (Marmot, 2010) which shows evidence that people living in England in the poorest areas compared to those living in the richest will, on average, die 7 years earlier. This suggests a clear link between class and health. The report further notes other additional factors, such as infant mortality, and mental and physical well being go hand in hand with inequality.