Socio Cultural Factors Of Health

( Te Ara the encyclopaedia of New Zealand, 2012) portrays that socio economic status is the critical factor of health as it incorporates various factors such as education, income and occupation. There are numerous ways of measuring Socio economic status such as New Zealand Index of Deprivation, this measure utilises data on employment, family status, education, accommodation and transport which all contribute to a person’s health and wellbeing. These scores can also be measured as deciles for example a decile of 10 means that an area is least deprived whereas a decile of 1 means that the specific area is most deprived. Hence (Te Ara the encyclopaedia of New Zealand, 2012) shows us a powerful relationship between a person’s health and in which …show more content…
(2006)) depicts the four statements discussed in class, which are material/structural explanation, cultural/ behavioural explanations, social selection and the historical context. (Asthana, S., & Halliday, J. (2006)) clarifies that the cultural and behaviour explanation has two versions of explaining it, one being the soft version and another being the hard version. However both these versions incorporate that behaviours such as inactivity, large consumption of alcohol, smoking and lack of nutritious diet can lead to the downfall of an individual’s health which are more likely to occur in groups that are socially disadvantaged ( have a lower socio economic status) than the people who have a higher socio economic status. The hard version insists on a more singular situation, which is that people from a socio economically deprived area is responsible for his or her decisions, and that it may be their choice not to live a healthy life style. (Asthana, S., & Halliday, J. (2006)) shows that inequalities are created as people who are socio economically deprived tend to choose poor behaviours leading to a poorer lifestyle, such as smoking, lack of exercise which are the risk factors of strokes. Hence due to the poor behaviours that individuals from the lower socio economic status choose, they are more likely to experience the risk factors of stroke leading them to serious consequences such as strokes. Whereas people from the higher socio economic group are in an advantage as they tend to choose healthier foods leading to decreased chances of strokes and a healthier life. Hence Cultural and behavioural explanations also is linked with material and structural resources as having less income creates poorer decisions on behaviours such as smoking and a bad diet. (Asthana, S., & Halliday, J.