Social Inequality And Health Essay

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.

There is a strong correlation with an individual or group SES and the quality of health care received. Social Economic Class relates to what group of class an individual fit in based on their income, which can include wages, investments or other source. The quality of care depends on the facilities that is offering the services, the staff, accessibility to the service and the kind of health insurance that the person has. Affording health care is expensive and the lower or poor class has to decide between being able to afford food or other daily needs and going to a clinic for screening. Most of the time, individuals who fall in the class will ignore the health signs while

Socioeconomic status is ordinarily broken into three classes to portray the three zones a family or an individual may fall into. While setting a family or individual into one of these classes, any or the majority of the three variables can be surveyed. Furthermore, low salary and education have been appeared to be solid indicators of a scope of physical and emotional wellness issues, including respiratory infections, joint pain, coronary illness, and schizophrenia. These issues might be because of natural conditions in their working environment, or, on account of dysfunctional behaviors, might be the whole reason for that individual 's social problem regardless. Education in higher socioeconomic families is ordinarily pushed as a great deal more vital, both inside of the family and additionally the nearby group. In poorer zones, where nourishment and security are need, education can take a secondary lounge.

Social class, culture, and ethnicity all impact a patient and their family’s health. Although all three of these components are an important aspect of health, if I could only assess one it would be social class. A family’s social class is the most important aspect of a nurse’s assessment, because it impacts the family’s ability to obtain proper care. According to Friedman, Bowden, and Jones (2003), social class is the grouping of persons with similar social status, income, lifestyle, and living conditions (p. 222). Socioeconomic status influences a family’s ability to obtain necessary resources that are imperative in maintaining their physical and mental health status, thus solidifying the correlation between health and social class (Friedman et al., 2003 p.222).

Throughout history, it is evident that inequalities and disparities are part of health systems and society. Even after all the success of activism, such as the work from the human rights movement and campaign, inequalities and disparities are still evident today. Especially within minority groups, such as LGBTQ* (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer) individuals – this is not to say that LGBTQ are the only categories when it comes to sexual orientation and gender identities, thus it is followed by a * – and racial groups. Furthermore, it is evident that within minority groups there are specific micro-level groups that experience unique and sometimes even greater amount of inequalities and disparities. For example, the micro-level group of transgender individuals from the LGBTQ* community is one of the many minority groups that experience both medical and social disparities and inequalities.This paper will discuss both the medical and social inequalities and disparities that Transgender Individuals face, including structural violence and intentional violence.

Oh Lord, help all of the black communities to fight back against poverty and give them strengths the disparities around of their communities. Martin Luther King offered his life and died for the cause of inequality, hoping that one day there would not be any discrimination, disparity, poverty and the segregation among the people of color. Nevertheless, people who lived in the black community receive less attention than the elites.

In “Prevention is Primary” (2010), health disparities are described as “conditions that are avoidable, unjust and unfair” (p. 36). The situation in Florida, with pain clinics on every corner of Broward County handing out prescriptions and/or dispensing copious amounts of extremely potent pain medications, is certainly avoidable. Today our national pain medication abuse has reached epidemic proportions forcing our president to declare a national emergency. As highlighted in the film, the OxyContin Express, anyone is susceptible to the lure of abusing prescription drugs. Todd, a younger, white male, had been abusing oxycontin for years despite the loss of both his brother and wife. The availability and sheer number of pills with little restrictions or regulations in place has brought unfavorable conditions to Florida that promote abuse (Foster, Tanner, & Van Zeller, 2009). The fact that anyone can walk into a clinic and purchase an MRI, have strong medications to regulate “pain” prescribed, and walk out with copious, deadly amounts of drugs speaks to the fact that anyone can and is impacted by health inequalities.

It is well documented that lower socioeconomic status (SES) is associated with worse health among adults(Adler, Boyce, Chesney, Folkman, & Syme, n.d.) and adolescents.(Finkelstein, Kubzansky, & Goodman, 2006; Goodman, 1999; Starfield B, Riley AW, Witt WP, Robertson, 2002) Objective measures of SES such as level of education, income, and occupation are the most common methodology used in health literature to describe socioeconomic-based health disparities.(Shavers VL, 2007) However, subjective social status (SSS) is also a relevant predictor of health, independent of SES. (Adler NE, Epel ES, Castellazzo G, & Ickovics, 2000; Aneshensel CS, Sucoff, 1996) Indeed, there is a small but growing body of literature about people’s perceptions of

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

The Behavioural or Cultural Explanation: places emphasis on the individuals and the consequences of their behaviour, when they choose to eat, drink and live healthily the inequalities will be reduced.

Income inequality also causes obesity however; we mostly blame individuals for being obese. Being obese can have a serious impact on mental and physical health. it is an illness that is associated with stereotypes. The biggest one is “if poor people become obese they cannot be not poor”. People in this mentality also exclude the structural and social conditions that cause illnesses such as obesity. Social life affects the health of people, especially the socioeconomic level. How much you earn monthly is a factor how fit you are. The risk of being an obese is lower for the wealthy individuals. Poor people are obese because they have no money to buy healthy food, they have no time to exercise, they have stress that causes them to eat constantly, they lack education, they do not have access to the healthcare, they do not have social support and so on. It is mostly about the income inequality.

Socioeconomic status (SES) is one of the most widely studied constructs in the social sciences. Several ways of measuring SES have been proposed, but most include some quantification of family income, parental education, and occupational status. Research shows that SES is associated with a wide variety of health, cognitive, and socioemotional outcomes in children, with effects beginning prior to birth and continuing into adulthood. A variety of mechanisms linking SES to child well-being have been proposed, with most involving differences in access to material and social resources. For children, SES impacts well-being at multiple levels.

Understanding social factors in health has become a central issue recently and a large number of studies has been dedicated in this regard. Social factors are phenomena seen in the interaction between individuals and social groups. In this essay, the importance of understanding such factors and their influence on health are addressed by studying socioeconomic status. Studies results are incorporated to explain health inequalities that arise from socioeconomic status and possible explanations including the material and structural, social selection, cultural and historical explanations cited in the literature are briefly discussed.

Families besides providing for the basic necessities such as food, shelter, and clothes for their children, they also pass on cultural and educational values onto their children. According to the American Psychological Association, an important factor in poverty is a family’s socioeconomic status (SES) is often measured as a combination of education, income, and occupation. It is commonly thought of as the social position or class of an individual or group. Socioeconomic status in families is a key factor that influences quality of life for young children and their families. Low socioeconomic status is linked with lower education, poverty, and poor health. Proven studies show that low socioeconomic status is connected with higher levels of emotional, behavioral difficulties, and hostility. Socioeconomic status is proven to create achievement differences among children from low income families from those who come from well off families (Children, Youth and Families & Socioeconomic Status).