Health Inequality Essay

“Health is a state of complete physical, mental, spiritual and social wellbeing, and not just the absence of disease” (WHO, 1974). Health inequalities are the differences in health or healthcare opportunities in different societies this may be due to income,

There are many other issues associated with gender, these are associated around the lifestyle factors and habits such as smoking. There is a higher death rate based around males which can be linked with their higher levels of smoking and drinking. This is also based around the individuals participating in dangerous sports and activities. This Is based around their need for more adventure and risk taking, this can also be linked with road accidents. Meaning a higher death rate for males between 17 and 24.

These are a few potential links between social inequalities and the health of the population: income and wealth distribution, unemployment, the ageing society, gender and health, mental illness and suicide and disability and dysfunction. I am going to discuss each of these and see the health impact on people in each group.

There has always been a link between social class and health, even with the welfare state and the improvements made to health in all sections of societies over the years, a difference still remains in this area. This difference is applied to all aspects of health, which include life expectancy, general levels of health and infant mortality. Many people argue that as long as the quality of life is

The black report was published in 1980, and it included different facts about how health can be improved from all different backgrounds in different social groupings. There is still a co-relation between social class and infant mortality rates, life expectancy and inequalities in the use of medical services. This report looked at the differences between health and illness. Sociologists from this very day still use the black report to look at inequalities of health because it was that significant and powerful.

Lower class people who are unemployed and depend on the government to support themselves live a poorer quality of life. This has a huge effect on levels of health and well being. For example, overcrowding in a home can affect health of an individual. The overcapacity of people living under the same roof creates respiratory infections from bacteria and dirt. This mainly involves the lower respiratory tract, which

This paper will include definitions of health equity and health inequity, steps to reduce health inequity, and two important decisions used to decrease in health inequity and why this reduction in health inequity occurs. It will also include further discussion on certain steps and decisions used to decrease health inequity.

The difference in health outcomes and the determinants between parts of a population caused by social, demographic, environmental and geographic characteristics is defined as health disparities (Dore & Eisenhardt,2015). Societal, economic, and political forces impact social determinants. (Dore & Eisenhardt, 2015) have indicated that health inequities are avoidable and preventable when appropriate actions are taken to lower the risk of illness.

There are many different reasons why health inequalities exist due to many factors one extremely important one is social class. Socio-economic inequalities have been researched in the UK for many years. In the early 20th century the government started an occupational census which gave the researchers the opportunity to examine health outcomes of social class. The five class scheme was introduced in 1911 and a variation has been used since. In 2001 the National Statistics Socio Economic Classification replaced the older version. Social class is a name used to identify people who are similar in their income

Health and social class have always been closely linked. Recent research has shown that the gap between social classes is not only widening in terms of annual income but also in terms of health. Social class affects a person's physical health, longevity, and ability and access to appropriate nutrition and medical care. People who have received more education and have a higher income are less likely to have and die of chronic diseases, such as heart disease, strokes, diabetes, and cancer. While individuals of lower social-economic class tend to experience more health issues, they have less access to healthcare of appropriate quality compared to individuals of higher social-economic classes. This is because there are higher health risk factors

Among the life chances affected as result of social class involve factors such as: How long people live (life expectancy), how healthy people are, how much and what they eat, the kind of housing they live in, the level of education they reach and the qualifications they achieve, how likely they are to be unemployed

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 health inequalities than people in higher socio-economic classes. Health inequalities are not only found between people of different

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

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)

The report gives a clear analysis of how inequality runs from the richest to the poorest. Using the RGSC’s scales one of the reports most famous findings was that a child of an unskilled manual worker would die 7 years earlier than a child born to professional parents. (Macionis & Plummer, 2005). Other findings were that people in class V were more likely to die of conditions like heart disease, cancer or stroke than those in class IV. It was evident that people in class I had a longer life expectancy, better health with lower death rates. (O’Donnell, 2005). The Black Report look at four main reasons which may explain the inequalities in health:-