Socioeconomic Status

Communities are sometimes largely unaware that social factors rather than medical ones, such as income, and employment status, shape our health. Our health is also determined by the health and social services we receive, and our ability to attain high education levels, food and safe housing, among other factors.

A variety of challenges including personal, social, economic, and environmental factors can determine the health of an individual as well as its community. Others determinants of health include genetics, access to medical care, and socioeconomic measures such as education and poverty. Any interference among these factors can often lead to health disparities, which are health gaps that exist between different communities and populations. Health disparities can affect communities based on gender, age, race, social status, economic status, or special care needs. Therefore to understand which factors affect the health of a community, it is necessary to examine the social and economic conditions in which people live in, as well as the rates of diseases

Racial and ethnic health disparities plays a significant role when it comes to those living in a what is considered a low- economic community because people are more susceptible to poor air quality, high blood pressure related to stress, and violence. Inaccessibility to healthy foods forces people to have to eat unhealthy and struggle with the risk that can lead to obesity or high cholesterol down the road (Noonan, A et al ,2016). Also social racism with having limited income, and education can cause people to act out in a negative way due to being frustrated and can cause one to act out in a violent way which can cause a spike in crime. So much can be done to strengthen low economic communities such as re-opening schools in the neighborhood,

Social class is a division of a society based on social and economic status which can include levels of wealth, success, power of authority, and influence. Status is can be defined or grouped having common economic, cultural, or political interests.

Socioeconomic Status is where a particular person or group of people stand in regards to social class. The main measurement that determines one's socioeconomic status is level of education, occupation and income. Although it may not be considered a factor in child development, socioeconomic status can actually play a huge role in determining what kind of adolescent a child develops into. It can influence a child’s morals, self-esteem, grades and many more aspects of a child's life. Socioeconomic status can play a role in determining where a person resides, the occupation they end up getting, their education and their income as well. So, although one’s socioeconomic status is technically made up of these aspects, one can be born into a low socioeconomic status which could result in them continuing to have one throughout their life. It is a cycle that one must break in order to change the outcome. Low socioeconomic status can result in child poverty. Child poverty over the years has risen and fallen but has remained consistently apparent in America. Child poverty can have detrimental effects on developing children and adolescents. It may influence the way they are raised, taught, cared for and many more aspects of the child's life which are important for successful development. Low socioeconomic status can determine how well children and adolescents develop and the type of person they develop into, including

Although it is intuitive to hypothesize that disparities in health arise because of socioeconomic differences between racial groups, studies often find that racial disparities persist even after accounting socioeconomic factors. Ethnicity is highly correlated with residential location, with minorities and whites often living segregated from one another. Differential residential location comes with differential exposure to health risks.

Furthermore, research on aging and eldercare also show a propensity that socioeconomic status should be taken into consideration, according to Bookman and Kimbrel (2011). The authors contend that African American, Hispanic, Asian, and Native American communities, and other groups also bring their cultural strengths and demands to the caregiving experience (Bookman & Kimbrel,

Socioeconomic status influences health care quality and outcomes. Patients of lower socioeconomic status are more likely to have worse self-reported health, lower life expectancy, and suffer from more chronic conditions when compared with those of higher socioeconomic status. As a result, patients of lower socioeconomic status, in which we will encounter throughout our career’s, require more care and attention during their visits due to this lack of access. These individuals typically need the most care and unfortunately, we will not see them as often compared to other socioeconomic groups. An additional additive for this population may include providing them with take home exercises in which they are able to perform on their own. That is if they are invested enough to complete them without further supervision. While some hospitals are willing to revise their current policies, to basically “write off” the lower class, we as athletic trainers have to be advocates for these individuals who make up the majority of the population. The first step that we can take involves going a step above to the school board and asking for better nutritional options regarding school lunches. Most school lunch options fail to include fresh alternatives consisting of mostly processed food that can be easily distributed to a large number of students. Another way in which we can promote healthy eating habits is by utilizing social media to share coupons and local grocery store ads to the parents of

While obesity and overweight levels have been rising for all socioeconomic groups, some groups of people are more affected than others. Relationships between socioeconomic status and obesity undoubtedly have complex explanations. Some studies have shown that people with low socioeconomic status are more likely to be overweight or obese than people with high socioeconomic status. Author also emphasizes that socioeconomic status causes disparities in health and shorten longevity for those who are most disadvantaged. The relationship between overweight or obesity and income is varies by race and ethnicity. For example, in a household with less than $10,000 of annual income about 33 percent of blacks are obese, about 26 percent of Hispanics, and about 19 percent of whites. Culture, race and ethnicity play an important role in determining the obesity rate. Critser emphasizes certain studies that show minority groups tend to have drastically higher obesity and weight related disease rates than

Another study concerning socioeconomic status was done by a group of researchers including Vonetta Dotson, Melissa Kitner-Triolo, Michele Evans, and Alan Zonderman. They examined test scores from low and high socioeconomic status African Americans and Whites in order to determine if socioeconomic status and/or race affect cognitive abilities. The researchers hypothesized that proficiency in literacy would be a better predictor of cognitive abilities than years of education, especially for people of low socioeconomic status and African Americans (Dotson, Kitner-Triolo, Evans, & Zonderman, 2009). In order to measure the theory, cognitive tests from participants were examined and demographic questions were asked to determine incomes and race.

Socioeconomic conditions of persons and the places where they live and work do strongly influence their health. In the United States, as elsewhere, the risk for mortality, morbidity, unhealthy behaviors, reduced access to health care and poor quality of care increases with decreasing socioeconomic circumstances (CDC Health Disparities and Inequalities Report, 2011).

So, what was socioeconomic status? What were the components that constructed socioeconomic status? Socioeconomic status was defined by multiple factors: educational attainment, income, occupational prestige, wealth, and much more. Educational attainment component of socioeconomic status had a long term prevalence on a person’s health. Research shown that children who grew up in low-socioeconomic status households and communities developed academic skills more slowly than other children. Some potential reasons was the lack of literacy in their environment, chronic stress, under resource, inadequate education provided in an area, and much more influenced an individual’s opportunity of learning at an early age (American). The lack of literacy in an environment was attributed

Socioeconomic status measures as a combination of education and income. Poverty levels have similarities of lower education and poor health for children’s and families. Little has been found to understand how poor, single African American mothers view marriage as a strategy to end poverty and their reliance on welfare (Deborah, H., & Domeinco, P,2008). A strong influence on academic level on socioeconomic status within the United States. The delayed of marriage by college-educated women have benefited from marriage later than other demographic groups. Higher education impacted the age and length of marriage. Likewise, women who graduated from high school or some college education have approximately 30 percent and 20 percent lower odds

Socioeconomic status (SES) is often conceptualized in literature to include income, education, and occupation. There are a number of different pathways through which SES effects child development; environmental and parental influence will be emphasized. Low SES children are disproportionately exposed to damaging physical and social environments (Evans, 2006). The social environment for children of low SES is often deprived of parental interaction. Parents of higher SES often engage in more rich conversation, provide more scaffolding, and are more responsive, often enforcing less punitive discipline in comparison to parents of a low SES (Hart & Risley, 1995). Duncan and Brooks-Gunn (2000) explain that low SES has the most significant influence

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.