Effects Of Socioeconomic Disadvantage On Gestational Age

Why are higher income and social status associated with better health? If it were just a matter of the poorest and lowest status groups having poor health, the explanation could be things like poor living conditions. But the effect occurs all across the socio-economic spectrum. Considerable research indicates that the degree of control people have over life circumstances,

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.

The geographic-level aspects involve a range of dimensions, ranging from physical characteristics of the area – such as location and climate (Bloom and Sachs 1998, APUD Wagstaff, 2001), to the infrastructure offered (Macintyre et. al., 2002) such as health services (quantity and quality), sanitation, water supply, roads, and so forth. One interesting hypothesis is that the presence of favorable aspects, like low crime rates, street cleanness and lightening, recreation places, among other “amenities” in the region under analysis mitigate the effects of unfavorable individual circumstances over health; whereas the adverse ones, such as pollution, lack of sanitation or low accessibility to urban facilities, amplify the already perverse influence of deprived individual characteristics on health status (Macintyre et. al., 2002; Kennedy et al., 1998). In California, for instance, Haan, Kaplan and Camacho (1987) found that people from poor areas experienced higher mortality rates (after controlling proper age, race and sex) than the population from non-poverty areas. Such risk of death persisted even after socioeconomic and behavioral adjustments. Similar findings have been reported by Humphries and Carr-Hill (1991); Jones and Duncan (1995) and Duncan et.al. (1993), supporting the hypothesis of the social environment´s influence over health, independently of the individual-level.

The environment inside the mother’s womb can indeed have a dramatic influence on the development of a child but environment influences such as where the child is raised can have a huge affect on a child development as well. Children of a low income tend to live in more polluted areas, where the air and the water are polluted, pollution can cause brain development in children as well lung diseases that can be development in childhood or can affect them later in life. One the factors that can have a huge impact on a child’s life is housing. Those on a low income are more likely to be living in poor housing conditions experiencing stress from overcrowding including noise, lack of privacy, having to wait to use facilities such as the toilets, poor heating and ventilation in winter, poor washing and cooking facilities, the house can have many hazards for a child due to architectural features, dampness, as well the neighbourhood cannot be safe or have poor facilities such as shops and parking. Poor housing is associated with poor health this is due of poor facilities and opportunities, children that grow up within poor housing are more

After a great deal of research and strong evidence to support such claims, I have come to the conclusion that the cause of the black and white infant mortality gap can be attributed to the near two-fold increased rates of low birth weight and preterm births, and the near three-fold increased rates of very low birth weight and very preterm births among black infants. However, the cause of the racial disparities between such birth outcome rates remains largely unexplained. Most studies focus on differential exposures to risk, such as high teen pregnancy rates, single motherhood, lower education levels, poverty, and even genetic causes, but these factors do not adequately account for the racial disparities in birth outcomes. Based off of the studies previously mentioned, the lack of prenatal support, social support, and high allostatic load appear to be some of the main factors that contribute to accounting for the black and white infant mortality gap. As a result, researches have recently proposed an alternative approach to examining racial-ethnic disparities in birth outcomes using a “life course perspective”. A life course perspective, as defined by scientist Michael Lu, is known to “conceptualize birth outcomes as the end product of not only the nine months of pregnancy but the entire life course of the mother before the pregnancy.”

Childbearing among unmarried women has been the subject of intense public policy and public health concern for decades, much of it reflecting concerns about the impact of family structure and the economic security on children’s health and mental well-being. This report examines dataset on births in NYC in 2001 to establish if there is a causal effect between nonmarital birth and low birth weight.

When looking at infant mortality rates in the lowest class evidence shows that double the amount of babies die in comparison to the highest class this can be linked to poverty the poorer you are the worse your chances are even at birth. These following factors increase the risk of infant death; the age of the mother aged less than 18 years is the highest and the lowest for mothers between 30 and 34. With the high teenage pregnancy epidemic and women from lower social class background the most at risk from losing their baby.

Discuss disparities related to ethnic and cultural groups relative to low birth weight infants and preterm births.

3.3Economic and social Barriers: this subcategory includes: Low economic level and social class. With regard to preconception care that is costly, low economic level has reduced services access, and it will affect on unplanned pregnancy indirectly. Midwife numbers 9 with 7 years' experience said: "Rural women due to Lack of money, she cannot buying contraceptive. She became pregnant, and she cannot

Every society has a class whether that be lower-middle, upper-middle or high class. Differences between children that grow up in favorable conditions and those who grow up in poverty are noticeable around 9 months (Moore, McDonald, Carlon, & O’Rourke, 2015). The class you are in sometimes can have effects on your health and lifetime. This article Early childhood development and the social determinants of health inequities points out the indicators pertaining to children and families. It is said that poor children worsen in health as they progress while those in higher class improve.

Being born into a certain social class may affect your health drastically, a child born in the lower end of the social systems is twice as likely to die in the first few months of their life than a child born in the professional class (6). (See appendix1.1) The well being of a child is also at risk when born lower down in the social scale, their vaccinations and dentist visits are limited. (See appendix1.2)

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.

The aim of this essay is to examine the influence that socio-economic status has on an individual’s health.

Life chances in terms of health for the lower social class mean that they are more likely to get ill. This happens as they cannot manage to pay for the suitable clothing, heating in the cold weather, living in overcrowded conditions and poor diet. In terms of education attainment children who are born in the family that is classified as higher class achieve better results in school compared to those in lower social class. Furthermore, the children that belong to the parents of higher class are more likely to get better education (through private schools/institutions), this increases their chances of employment with high income (Haralambos & Holborn, 2000).

Socioeconomic status is a predictive measure of health that has been widely used in the literature (Kroenke, 2008). It