Essay On Social Inequalities In Health

Superior Essays
I believe that there are social and spatial inequalities in health in Great Britain and that have been widening since the mid 1800’s to late 1900’s, and even currently worldwide. These increasing inequalities in health can be observed in socio-economic trends. Observations can be made on different parts of Great Britain, European countries, and around other places around the world as well. I believe social class, economic, and political differences affect the trends of health inequality negatively from 1940 to 1980 in Great Britain and worldwide due to many reasons. The disadvantages in health status relates not only to minority in the poorest social circumstances but related to the way the social class is structured and how the lower social …show more content…
Charity and the voluntary sector and private health care. Hospitals were fee paying or voluntary, primary care was usually mainly paid in pees or paid by insurance. The Poor Law and local government. Poor Law hospitals were transferred to local government by the 1930 Poor Law Act . Figures located in the United Kingdom showed that adults and kids who were of the lower social class were likely to suffer from a range of illnesses such as disease from parasites, pneumonia, violence, and being poisoned . Explanations as to why this was thought to be happening include natural and social selection. The people who are most fit to survive are the ones who are highly likely to thrive in society. In addition, most economic analyses of health care are based on measures of the populations defined by their income level . This shows that the lower classes, the ones struggling to survive, who make a smaller amount of income experience health inequality due to their earnings. Poverty can also lead to bad health through being exposed to a bad environment, poor nutrition, and unfit housing . Culture and behavior can also help explain the health inequality by the different diets and fitness levels along with habits like

Related Documents

  • Decent Essays

    Unnatural Causes

    • 335 Words
    • 2 Pages

    They have more resources available which makes leading a healthy life easier for them compared to a person who is on a lower gradient of the social ladder. They tend to…

    • 335 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Poor people are more stressful in every aspect of life, and encounter sickness caused by hopelessness such as diabetes, heart-problem, high blood pressure. (Royce, 2009:…

    • 520 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    In general, there is a huge gap between the quality care among classes. In the case of the poor, their poverty constrains them to inadequate health care, and as a result are more likely to become sicker. With a similar idea when the poor are sick, seeking medical attention only produces more poverty, it is the high medical bills that keep those at the bottom at the bottom like in the case for Robert Banes. Mr. Banes due to his low-paying, temporary jobs, had no access to medical insurance, and as a result his health suffered for not seeking help on time. Nonetheless, it was his poverty that constrained him from seeking care, and as a result his kidneys suffered the consequences.…

    • 1706 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    I believe that poverty is a cause of poor health in a community as well as poor health is a cause of poverty. We hear about poverty on the news as well as poor health almost every day this issue has been a major concern for the U.S even more in other countries “ According to the 2010 United States Census Bureau statistics, the official poverty rate was 15.1%, with 46.2 million people living in poverty (Friis, Bell & Philibert, 2013).” The causes for poverty are more than likely due to unemployment, low wages, part-time employment, jobs without medical benefits with the economic changes increase in living cost and inflation. This results in poor health unable to pay for medical insurance to get adequate care.…

    • 143 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Some of the other reasons why issues related social determinants of health has remained unchallenged in Canada, include; how population health researchers and public health practitioners understand health inequalities and their roles in reducing them and how much the public understands SDOH and public policy making(Raphael, D., 2010,Pg. 17). The population health researchers and public health practitioners are certainly aware of social determinants of health related issues, but the issue is why haven’t there been any article on the sources of SDOH and how we can reduce them. I believe the topic of social determinants of health and its related issues have not been advocated as much as it should. Another problem is that public health has been privatized, The new public health has been influenced by the neoliberal paradigm, which allows for citizens to manage their own risks factors, making it an individual responsibility rather than a government or state responsibility.…

    • 549 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    “Where you stand in the economic ladder is a good predictor of health”. inequality makes us sick, but more importantly underlying causes of inequality make us sick. Reducing the health inequality is possible as it was done before. In the past, some social reforms such as universal education, eight-hour work policy, and better sanitization, helped to improve the health of people. However, during the 1980’s, the government changed the social policies, deregulated industry, reduced taxes for the wealthy.…

    • 1177 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Inequalities in heath are indicators of distributional differences. Health in most countries is not a political priority and policy planning is done by few elites. Powerful interest groups frame the agenda and influence the policies, like big pharmaceutical countries. Health intervention programs may not even be the solutions, causing deep issues in the health status of a country. Addressing health inequalities requires concerted actions, intersectoral coordination.…

    • 121 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Health disparities are a major concern among our nation. The Department of Human Health Services and National Institute of Health (2009) define health disparity as population-specific difference in: the burden of the disease, including incidence, prevalence and mortality, health outcomes, and access to care. There are many factors that contribute to health disparities, such as; socio-economic status, cultural variations, political, social, and historical factors. In the United States, oral health disparities continue to rise, reducing oral health disparities by educating and improving access to care is essential in our overall health. Socioeconomic status plays a crucial role when it comes to the type of healthcare you receive.…

    • 889 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Therefore, people that live in poverty tend to have more medical issues throughout their…

    • 1224 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The role of social determinants in Australia The role a focused approach on social determinants would have on improving health care provided is would be to decrease unnecessary mortality, suffering and to enable all people to have access to care this is even a factor in Australia. Although Australia has in the past had a high level of health care available to all populations rises, increases in the cost of living and even a competition to retain doctors in rural Australia have all taken a toll. Social determinants are based on the economy and social conditions of an area, it can be impacted by many factors. The level of health care and access to treatment even in first world countries is greatly determined by social status, location and the…

    • 1137 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Health Disparities Essay

    • 1046 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Common Health Disparities in the Latino Population As individuals progress throughout their lives, healthcare plays an important role. Individuals rely on health care services to provide strong mental and physical health on their wellbeing. The types of health care that may be provided could consist of, but are not limited to, routine visits, surgery, rehabilitation, medications or full body screenings. Ultimately, the health care systems, as a whole, would be able to provide these necessary services. A main issue with healthcare is that not everyone receives the same quality of care.…

    • 1046 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The movie In Sickness and in Wealth, gives an eye opening realization to the effect of our health based on our socioeconomic status. It appears to create a domino effect, the lower income you have the greater risk you have for health problems and a shortened life span. The health care system in the United States has many flaws. The United States spends two trillion a year on health care, almost half in the world, yet has one of the lowest life expectancy rates. Today, the top one percent of Americans owns more wealth than the bottom 90% combined (Staff, 2008).…

    • 1037 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The main question that I will be addressing is ‘How does income inequality impact the health status of a community/individual?’. In the article ‘Effect of Income Inequality on Health Status in a Selection of Middle and Low Income Countries’ written by Elnaz Hajebi and Javad Razmi, it is argued that income inequality reduces the health status in the poorest areas. That is, population in areas with lower socioeconomic status tend to have a much lower health status then areas that are developed. There are many secondary questions that could be analyzed regarding this topic since there are many external variables and scenarios that could change the final outcome. Another question that is crucial to cover is ‘Are there other factors that may affect…

    • 1875 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    These four explanations are artefact, social selection, cultural explanations and structural materialist. The artefact explanations of health inequalities believe the idea that the relationship between class and health is artificial rather than real. It comes either through the measurement of social class and/or health, or in the measurement of the relationship between the two. While many problems relating to the measurement of health inequalities remain to be resolved, there is overwhelming evidence to refute the claim that health inequalities are artefactual.…

    • 1298 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Great Essays

    Therefore, social injustices create a disadvantage to those who are less privileged and health achievement is much more…

    • 1317 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays