The Tower Of Borough Demography

The social determinants of health are the circumstances that impact and surround people, since are born, grow, work, live, and age, education, income, race and gender, and the broader set of powers and systems that shaping the circumstances of daily life. It is important because it impacts all aspect of daily life of people, and it caused direct and indirect health problems.

Social determinants of health are the social, physical and economic environments and places in which individuals are exposed to throughout their life that affect their health and well-being. Healthy People 2020 have identified five key determinants including: economic stability, education, social and community context, health and health care, and the neighborhood or built environment (Currie & Moretti, 2003). Education attainment is the most important and modifiable social determinant of health. This is because, education has broad impacts at the individual, societal and economic level. First, higher educational attainment enables an individual to increase their SES and income by having more opportunity for better paying jobs.

This essay will focus on type 2 diabetes, which is becoming one of the fast growing chronic health conditions in the United Kingdom (UK). Approximately 700 people are diagnosed with type 2 diabetes each day in the UK (Diabetes Uk, (2014)a). It is costing the NHS about £10billion pounds each year to treat diabetes along with its complication and it is expected to rise in the next couple of years (Diabetes UK, (2014)b).

Social determinants of health comprise education, employment, child development, socioeconomic capabilities, wealth and income, gender, and culture. Because of social determinants of health components, it contributes to promoting health inequality. Thus, social factors affect primary health conditions. Consequently, social determinants of health, which include

 SOCIAL DETERMINANTS OF HEALTH  MUHAMMAD AZIZ  BENEDICTINE MPH STUDENT  SOCIAL DETERMINANTS OF HEALTH Definition: We can define the social determinants of the health as “”These are the circumstances which deal with the daily living conditions of the individuals in a community. In other words these describe in which people are born, live, grow, work and age.

Social determinants can strengthen or undermine the health of individuals and communities (Wilkinson & Marmot 2003). For example, in general, people from poorer social or economic circumstances are at greater risk of poor health than people who are more advantaged.

The overall health of the population can be due impart to the living conditions in which they experience, rather than traditional risk factors of health we first think of. The umbrella term social determinants of health (SDH) can be defined as: the conditions in which people are born, grow, work, live, and age, and the wider set of forces and systems shaping the conditions of daily life.

“The social determinants of health are the conditions in which people are born, grow, work, live, and age, and the wider set of forces and systems shaping the conditions of daily life” (World Health Organisation (WHO), 2009). The social determinants of health can be divided into 5 categories, age, sex and hereditary factors, individual lifestyle factors, social and community networks, living and working conditions and general socioeconomic, cultural and

Keleher & MacDougall (2016, p.20) define the social determinants of health as “the fundamental structures of social hierarchy and the social, economic and politically determined conditions that result in good health, ill health or disease, and in which people grow, live, work and age”.

The World Health Organization defines, "Social determinants of health (SDoH) are the conditions in which people are born, grow, work, live, and age, and the wider set of forces and systems

The study aimed to examine the effect of socioeconomic disparities on the incidence of diabetes in countries with universal health care systems. The authors claimed that poverty plays a large role in increasing diabetes incidence among low income citizens. The study followed a quantitative research design (Hsu et al., 2012).

Diabetes continues to be a growing problem for the United States population especially type 2 diabetes, which “accounts for about 90% to 95% of all diagnosed cases of diabetes”(Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 2014). Type 2 diabetes, formally known as adult onset diabetes, is defined as a “disorder of insulin resistance in which the cells primarily within the muscle, liver, and fat tissue do not use insulin properly. As the need for insulin rises the cells in the pancreas gradually lose the ability to produce enough hormone”(CDC, 2014). Diabetes as a whole affects about “9.3% of the US population or 29.1 million people” (American Diabetes Association (ADA), 2014; CDC, 2014). Despite the high prevalence of the disease, it is only going to continue to grow if nothing is done to correct the problem. The “United States spent an estimated $245 billion on diabetes in 2012” (ADA, 2014; CDC, 2014). This outrageous number and the drastic impact diabetes has on health should emphasis the need to reduce the diabetic population in the future.

A person’s health can be affected by many factors such as housing, income and environment. This essay will define and explain the term ‘social determinants of health’, discuss why housing, income and environment are considered social determinants of health and how these determinants can have a negative affect on one’s health.

The determinants of health are economic and social conditions that affect people’s health status. These influence the living and working conditions that impacts people’s everyday living condition. Factors such as the place and the environment we live in, genetics, educational level or work status and income, as well as friends and family are some of the aspects that affects our health condition. On the other hand, the people that have an access to good health care and have financial stability are less susceptible and are often less affected. (NANB, 2009)

“Healthy individuals cannot survive when society is sick.” On the other hand, aspects of social structure influence health and illness. Social factors not only affect life expectancy, but the possibilities the one will experience diseases and in turn, the health care that they will receive.