The World Health Organization: Good Health to All the Citizens of the Nations - Essay Example

? of the Paper s Each and every living being is born with a fair chance of survival but it is not necessary that a fair chance will be an equal chance. Once a person is born, almost immediately various factors come into play and affect the survival chances and these factors continue to play a part in the years to come and serve as important influences when it comes to attainment of good health. There is a wide gap in equity of health when we scan through the different social strata of our society and there are numerous factors responsible for these unequal chances of attaining equal good health. It is not only the social class difference that affects the problem, the nation or the government that a person belongs to also has a large impact on health and growth since the healthcare system of a country influences the overall health of its citizens as well. The Importance of good Health The main aim of the World Health Organization has been to aim and ensure good health to all the citizens of the nations. According to the definition laid down by the World Health Organization, good health does not merely mean absence of a disease but is in fact a reflections of physiological, social and mental well being as well. This shows that simply immunological factors or physiological factors cannot play a role in promoting good health among a community but psychological and sociological factors too contribute equally towards the cause. Achieving a standard level of good health is extremely important for any community in any part of the world since good health of a community ensures physical, mental, social, spiritual, emotional and intellectual well being which forms the basis of advancement of the community as a whole. What is Equality in Health? In the present scenario equality in health is an ideal terminology. A close analysis of the health profiles of different countries and geographical areas within countries will show remarkable differences in health. We can thereby say that an inequity in health exists which has an ethical dimension since this discrepancy is both unnecessary and avoidable as well. In a way, this inequality is not just and is a scenario that goes against the constitutional promises of almost all nations. Sociology of Health and Healthcare Sociological awareness and factors have played important role in promotion of good health by understanding diseases response, social policy development and evolution of healthcare practices. The promotion of good health and sociology goes hand in hand since health promotion gives society an idea that people should be healthy and live a healthy lifestyle. However in attainment of good health socioeconomics plays a very important role. Persistent findings have established presence of inequalities in health in the different social classes, sexes, ethnic groups where marked differences in accessing health care, morbidity, and mortality and average life expectancies vary. These differences widen between the richer and the poorer nations rightly establishing the fact that socioeconomics of countries plays a role in availability of chances for its citizens for good health. However it should also be noted that unequal chances towards good health is not dependent solely on social class or access to proper care but is also dependent on factors such as education, knowledge, work ability, work eligibility and political power (Waitzin,2001). The sociological theory of health inequality relies heavily on the class factor and position of a person in the social strata which is directly associated with economics. Since the 1970’s there has been a rigorous change in the social class dynamics especially in the European countries. The decreasing inequality of chances for good health is a side effect of the “ the voracious, ‘strategic’ appetites of a hard core or cabal in its strongly globalised capitalist-executive, backed by its more weakly globalised power elite” (Scambler,2012,p138). Research has shown that socioeconomic states influence that response people have towards diseases and attempts made for their prevention.” There is an increasing body of evidence about socioeconomic inequality in preventive use, mostly for cancer screening. But as far as needs of prevention are unequally distributed, even equal use may not be fair” (Lorant et al, 2002, p510). Sociological differentiation between male and female has often led to better health among men than in women. Research has shown that in many countries males receive more medical attention than women because of this gender based differentiation (Krieger, 2003, p652). Nutrition and good Health It is a well known fact that nutrition has a well established effect on our health in fact our entire well being depends on nothing but nutrition and food intake itself. Proper wholesome intake of food ensures that the body is well nourished and has sufficient supply of the much needed nutrients, vitamins and minerals which are required to maintain proper functions of the body. Numerous diseases are caused due to nutritional deficiencies in the body. Lack of proper vitamins and minerals in the body may cause common diseases such as beri beri, scurvy, pellagra, night blindness etc. Even chronic diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular problems etc also depend on the type of food ingested. Therefore, proper nutrition is very much needed to maintain proper health and ensure proper growth. However, “Approximately 800 million people are food-insecure and at risk of under nutrition and underweight. Of these, 95% are in middle- and low-income countries and around 60% of these are in Asia” (Dixon et al,2007,p120) and since good health depends entirely on the food that we intake it is but obvious that a number of diseases are caused owing to dearth of proper intake of food. This is where the discrepancy creeps in. People of different social classes do not enjoy equal quality or quantity of food. On one hand the richer classes would be able to afford better food while the poorer classes would either be unable to buy food or sufficient food for all the members of the family. This is the reasons why we see that most diseases especially those caused due to nutritional deficiencies are predominant among the people from the lower strata of the society. Nutritional health of a pregnant lady is also important not only for her own health but also for the developing child inside her. By the process of epigenetics, nutritional deficiencies in the mothers causing birth of a poorly or malnourished child. This in fact effects the entire life system of the child since malnutrition hampers brain and body development causing not only physiological problems but also mental illness since studies have shown that children who are born undernourished perform poorly in school and also face more problems acquiring jobs than those children who have had sufficient nutrition during their fetal developmental stages (SAGE, 2012, 93). However this problem persists not only on the social scale but also on a global scale as well since the world economics and GDP of each country has an impact on the food supply in each of the countries. According to a research carried out by UNICEF on Vaal region in South Africa, established that economy affects nutrition and food which in turn affects the health of the citizens (Oldewage-Theron & Slabbert, 2008, p91). Moreover, within the same geographical region or country inequity in health is present in rural and urban areas and some health issues also differed with ethnicity as well. A study conducted in South Africa showed that rural children suffered from more health problems than urban children. Owing to nutritional deficiency, stunted growth was seen in 26.5% of rural children while urban children showed only a 16.7% of health problem. This was primarily because the intake of “ calcium, iron, zinc, selenium, vitamins A, D, C and E, riboflavin, niacin, vitamin B6 and folic acid were below two-thirds of the Recommended Dietary Allowances (Labadarios et al,2005, P.533). Another study highlights that socioeconomic deprivation leads to problems with nutrition and subsequently leads to problems with health among the population. Vorster et al showed that long term deficiency in nutrition caused health problems in growing children. The study also highlighted the fact that black children and colored children suffered more (3-64%) while white children suffered less (0-12%) which means that some areas inhabited by poorer colored people suffered more than the white people who had a slightly higher level in the social status scale (Vorster et al,1997,p2). Socioeconomic conditions and food intake have a complex association. There is also a link between world economy, food prices, food consumption and well being. It has been seen that economics of a country influences the kind of food people buy for consumption. When the economy is good and food prices are lower people tend to buy more nutritious and better food and most people, i.e. people from all strata can afford the food and hence the overall health of the community is enhanced. Howeevr when the economy is bad and food process rises, the intake of nutritious food especially the much needed protein enriched foods is reduced and therefore has negative impacts on the health (Bhargava,2008, p121). Psychology and Health It is not only sociological factors that have an impact on the health of a society or in the inequality of health, sociology in amalgamation with psychology also plays an important part. For most part it is the attitude towards health and well being that is most important to attain good health and upkeep of health. Again here education and awareness plays a key role in molding the psychological orientation of individuals towards the need for good health and nutrition. A pregnant lady give birth to a healthy child if the family’s psychology towards the maternal need to substantial i.e. she must be provided with proper food, nutrition, medicines and maternal healthcare.” Under nutrition in women in poor countries remains prevalent and affects maternal, neonatal and child health (MNCH) outcomes”(Mason et al,2012,p104) and if she is not provided with proper medical facilities and other needs it would have a negative impact not only on her health but also on the developing fetus. It had been seen that Latin American women suffered from low health status owing to “long working hours and the increased nutritional requirements caused by frequent gestations and prolonged lactation” (Fiqueroa et al, 1988, p705).As health is not always physiological it has been seen that life instances such as domestic violence etc has traumatized child bearing women leading to bad effects on the child as well (Mezey et al, 2005, p197). This leads to mental illnesses among the women. Attitude towards treatment and attention to medical problems and healthcare systems is very important because proper treatment and medical attention must be sought when health deteriorates. However, this not always the case. In many families across the globe diseases are often left untreated either due to lack of awareness, monetary problems or a laid back psychology of the family. In some cases geriatric care is often not given properly. Most children in modern households do not care much for the elderly and hence in these cases nutrition, nutrition-related problems and other health problems often go undiagnosed (Volkert et al,2010, p390). It is not always the psychology of the patients or his family that is important but the psychology of healthcare givers is also important. In many cases healthcare givers may become bias towards treating people and give little care to a person from a low-income background and offer better facilities and care to a person from a high-income background. Healthcare Equality Healthcare systems are important since they give proper treatment and medical attention to people suffering from various ailments however and since health is a fundamental right equal opportunities in healthcare must be offered. Every “individual is entitled to an equal opportunity to benefit from any public health care system” (Harris, 1999, p392) regardless of sex, caste, color or financial background .However in today’s world when the economy is at its worst in almost every country and all countries stand unequal on the economic scale, it is next to impossible to ensure that proper healthcare system is given to the people and there are various factors that affects this. Firstly, the tax that people pay to the government is used to establish government healthcare facilities which are affordable and hence accessible by people from all classes. However with the current economy, most governments do not have sufficient funds to build a proper healthcare system for every part. This means that while some parts of the country may enjoy the benefits of a healthcare facility, people of the same country residing in another part may not enjoy the benefits. Moreover, a rural and urban disparity is also present especially in developing countries such as Myanmar, Nepal, India etc. in the rural areas of these countries proper vehicles or roads are not present hence in times of need healthcare facilities are not available to the citizens at all which degrades the health quality. In stark comparison to this the urban areas of these same countries enjoy better access to such facilities. Conclusion The thought that chances of equality of health has been achieved yet neither on a national scale nor in the global scale. Each country first needs to construct policies to ensure uniform distribution of chances of good health for each and every citizen of the nation. Since everybody do not have equal chances at all, attempts need to be made such that it becomes practically possible for the citizens to have fair and equal chances towards good health. For this awareness, knowledge, and education and in some cases subsidiaries and well cut out policies are needed to ensure a community of physically and mentally healthy individuals. REFERENCES Bhargava,A (2008). Food, economics and health. london: Oxford University Press,. p1-240. Dixon et al. (2007). The Health Equity Dimensions of Urban Food Systems. J Urban Health. 84 (1), 118–129. Fiqueroa et al. (1988). The nutritional and health status of the Latin American woman].. Arch Latinoam Nut. 38 (3), p705-22.. Harris,J. (1999). Justice and equal opportunities in health care..Bioethics. 13 (5), p392-404. Krieger,N. (2003). Genders, sexes, and health: what are the connections--and why does it matter?. Int J Epidemiol. . 32 (2), :652-7. Labadarios,D et al. (2005). The National Food Consumption Survey (NFCS): South Africa, 1999.. Public Health Nutr. . 5 (1), 533-543. Lorant et al. (2002). Equity in prevention and health care.. J Epidemiol Community Health. 56 (7), p510-516. Mason et al. (2012). Opportunities for improving maternal nutrition and birth outcomes: synthesis of country experiences.. Food Nutr Bull. 33 (2), 104-37. Mezey et al. (2005). Domestic violence, lifetime trauma and psychological health of childbearing women.. BJOG.. 12 (2), p197-204. Oldewage-Theron,WH. Slabbert,T.J. (2008). mpact of food and nutrition interventions on poverty in an informal settlement in the Vaal Region of South Africa.. Proc Nutr Soc.. 67 (1), p91-97. SAGE. (2012). 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