Unnatural Causes Summary

In the movie Unnatural Causes: In Sickness and in Wealth, it compared the lives of four individuals, Taylor, Young, Anderson, and Turner, in different locations, race, and socioeconomic background. The scale of difference between this group of people is that it goes from financially stable and healthy individuals to individuals with lower income and poorer health. This wealth-health gradient reflects that those who have easier access to healthier lifestyles (i.e. running outside without the concern of safety) are more likely to have a higher life expectancy than those who are in living environments that are not as developed and lack healthier options of nutrition. The difference of the average life expectancy scaled down from Jim Taylor whose neighborhood had an average life expectancy of 80 years, Young’s 75.3 years,

In addition, they endure more stressful family and work conditions which can lead to unhealthy lifestyle characteristics, such as excessive use of alcohol and may…(reword) poor nutrition” (19). In other words, the more prestige/power one has within society, the better their chances are of living longer. Scott’s article Life at the Top in America Isn’t Just Better, It’s Longer; provided many examples that showed the inequality between the classes. For example, Jean Miele’s case; he had a heart attack and because of his social class—and connections established through his status—he was surrounded by two knowledgeable colleagues that knew something was seriously wrong with Miele, therefore; immediately calling an ambulance. In addition, because of the neighborhood Miele was in during the heart attack he was given a choice of where we was to go to receive medical care; within minutes of arriving at the chosen hospital, he was in line for an angioplasty to unclog the affected artery. After the heart attach Miele entered a cardiac rehab which was covered through his insurance. As Scott showed in her article, Miele never once considered the amount this operation cost or the price for his cardiac rehab treatment.

According to Riegelman and Kirkwood (2015) there are many social determinants that influence our health. These may include, but are not limited to; income, educational level, culture, and professional status. All of these things can contribute to our health, because they are the things we are surrounded with: a way of life. Most of these determinants are structurally unequal. This means that a person doesn’t have a choice, but to be part of that determinant. We do not have the choice of being born into a rich or poor family, what culture we are raised in, and so on. These inequalities lead to heath disparities. Health disparities are the differences between groups’ health that are/ can be caused by structural inequalities (Disparities 2017). For example, Henrietta Lacks came from a poor family and her health was negatively affected by the social determinants that come along with that lifestyle. On the other hand, we could look at a rich family during that time and their health could have been positively affected. We will look at how different social determinants caused Henrietta Lacks to experience both structural inequalities and heath disparities.

The Health and Wealth connection distilled is our health will most commonly reflect from our amount of wealth. The wealthy can afford the cost of quality care and the time to take care of themselves. Within the textbook, Dimensions of Human Behavior Hutchison writes. Public health experts have long noted the association of poor clinical outcomes, in all body systems, with low income, low education, unsanitary housing, poor healthcare, on stable employment, and uncertain physical environment (Hutchison, 2015). Easily demonstrated throughout American society the rather dubious and is a somewhat perplexing phenomenon of the Health-and-Wealth connection theory. The gap between the haves and have-nots are ever expanding. Those who have the funding to pay for resources will pay to get those resources. And those who do not have sufficient funds to pay for said resources will, unfortunately, have to stand in the long lines to receive seemingly, deceptively, scarce resources.

This video made a lot of sense to me because not having a job can stress out you all types of ways. If a person has no source of income, no provide food, have shelter, and pay bills this causes stress. The health disparities in this video are from the employees being laid off, more ER visit was made from the stress which causes chronic diseases to form. The employees had to watch their expenses and buy cheaper food or find another way to work but for lower income. What is the job status of all employees that got laid off? Did the employees find other work? Did they have to settle for a lower income job? Some of their programs consist of employment fairs now, the unemployment checks, and in the video if they were going to school they received more money.

Unnatural Causes: Is Inequality Making us Sick, clearly explored the relationship between socioeconomic status and health, it was said that college graduates live 2.5 years longer than high school graduates” (California Newsreel, 2008). This documentary illustrated how one’s level of education not only impacts their quality of life, but also impacts the duration of one’s life.

First, there is Jim Taylor, Hospital CEO, District 16; second, Tondra Young, Clinical Lab Supervisor, District 24; lastly, Corey Anderson, Floor Technician, District 21. The population of each district decreases in average income, education level and life expectancy than its preceding district, beginning with district 16, Jim Taylor’s district. District 16 has an average combined household income of approximately $120,000/ annually. In this district, 65% of the population has a college degree and the life expectancy in this district is 82 years. Whereas, Tondra Young’s district, district 24, has an average combined household income of $70,000/annually and 15% of the population has a college degree. The life expectancy of district 24 is 75 years, that’s 7 years less than district 16. In district 21, Corey Anderson’s district, the average combined household income is less than $50,000/ annually and only 5% of the districts population have college degrees. Consequently, the life expectancy of district 21 is 70 years, 5 years less than district 24 and 12 years less than district 16 (Adelman 2008). The results of this study are indisputable: there is an obvious correlation between social/economic status and health status. As each districts average income and education level decrease, average life expectancy coincides. This leads to the next question: why does social and economic status so greatly influence health status?

The video Unnatural Causes: In Sickness and in Health highlights the various disparities that impact population health outcomes among different groups. The frequency of violence and crime is one such feature that impacts health. Areas affected with an increased prevalence of violence and crime, will likely have residents that feel unsafe outside their homes. If patrons are not safe in their homes or neighborhoods, they are less likely to active within their community. This particularly affects children. If they are unable to play outside safely, there are more likely to live sedentary lives as they grow into adulthood. This impacts population health because a sedentary lifestyle increases the risk for developing certain cancers and other poor

The video shows the lives of four families with different economic status in Louisville, Kentucky. The life of a hospital CEO, a janitor, a lab supervisor and an unemployed mother during video showed the clear relationship between health and longevity. Families that social economic status is higher can maintain better health status; conversely, the family that socioeconomic status is lower has the worse health status. Poor Americans die almost six years earlier than the rich; American middle man died two years earlier than the rich. In addition, video states that education

Why do some of us tend to get sicker more often or die sooner, and what factors causes us to even become sick in the first place? “This series called “Unnatural Causes is a timely, informative and passionately made documentary. It convincingly connects all the dots between health, race, class, economics and social policy and comes to the conclusion that capitalism is making us sick. This is a documentary that will provoke anger, discussion, and debate. That is a good thing, because there are over 47 million uninsured in America and the crisis in health care is at the top of the domestic agenda. On average, people at the top live longer, healthier lives. Those at the bottom are more disempowered, get sicker more often and a lot of times, die sooner. We also see how racial inequality imposes an additional risk burden on people of color which takes place in Louisville, Kentucky”. (Unnatural Causes, 2008)

The Health and wealth connection distilled is our health will most commonly reflect from our amount of wealth. The wealthy can afford the cost of quality care and the time to take care of them selves. Within the textbook, Dimensions of Human Behavior Hutchison writes. Public health experts have long noted the association of poor health outcomes, in all body systems, with low income, low education, unsanitary housing, in adequate healthcare, on stable employment, and unsafe physical environment (Hutchison, 2015). Easily demonstrated throughout American society the rather dubious and is somewhat perplexing phenomenon of the Health-and-Wealth connection theory. The gap between the haves and have-nots are ever expanding. Those who have the funding to pay for resources will pay to get those resources. And those who do not have adequate funding to pay for said resources will unfortunately have to stand in the long lines to receive seemingly, deceptively, scarce resources.

This video episode of Unnatural Causes was concerned with how the health of newly arrived Mexican immigrants diminished as a function of them spending an increasing amount of time in America. It was initially pointed out that when they first arrived in this country, their overall health was better than most Americans, but within a generation, their health would deteriorate towards the norm in America due to the influence of inherent social pressures (Unnatural Causes, 2008). A couple of hypothetical reasons were then presented in order to explain why this might happen and then one of these was expounded upon for the majority of the video.

The lives of the characters in the film Unnatural Causes exemplifies concepts like the wealth-health gradient and the importance of power and control. As the narrator in the film states the wealth health gradient is: 70% of affluent Americans report that they’ve got good health this is twice as many as people who are poor in America. The lives of the lives of Jim Taylor, Tondra Young, Corey Anderson and Mary Turner exemplify the concept because they all are living proof that the wealth health gradient is accurate. Jim Taylor is the CEO of the hospital and goes on the explain that he has a very fortunate lifestyle. He says him and his family has time to exercise and they don’t have huge demands when the family isn’t working.

Rowlingson (2011) agrees with Wilkinson and Pickett that there is indeed a strong correlation between income and health and social problems. In her report she includes the ‘Marmot Review’ (Marmot, 2010) which shows evidence that people living in England in the poorest areas compared to those living in the richest will, on average, die 7 years earlier. This suggests a clear link between class and health. The report further notes other additional factors, such as infant mortality, and mental and physical well being go hand in hand with inequality.

For example a person living in a deprived council estate, with a very low income has been proven to be more at risk of developing health issues compared to someone from a higher social class as there is a strong correlation between poverty and ill health. This has been backed up by (WHO, 1946) that state that ‘poverty creates ill-health because it forces people to live in environments that make them sick.’