The Poverty Line and Health Issues among Poor People - Research Proposal Example

RESEARCH PROJECT: Understanding How the Poverty Line Creates More Chances of Having Health Issues among Poor People at Present of Institution: Name of Instructor: Date of Submission: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Health is an important part of life and that is to no avail a well accepted truth around the globe at present. It could not be denied that the health of each individual is considered to be practical asset that one has which he could use to establish personal success for his own and for those to whom he is related to. Although, because of the many things that keep human individuals extremely busy at present, health becomes a secondary priority for many. Although this is already a realized truth, it should not be forgotten that for everyone, young or old, poor or rich, health is an essential part of successful living. With the different survey considerations performed by the researchers of this study, a practical presentation of the different issues concerned when dealing with health check procedures is to be shown. Basically, the said options of practical survey procedures have been taken into consideration to help in making the discussions clear enough to present particular truths about the matter being examined. Introduction Low health rate and poverty have constantly been linked together by sociological experts. It could not be denied that the entire process of making a good sense out of life has caused many individuals to loos track of their health and end up losing the most prized possession that they have in life and that is their health. Most likely, it has been observed that among those who are having a hard time keeping track of their health are those who are overly concerned on other things. Matters that are considered essentially important to life as well such as working for food and the ample amount of basic necessities that one needs to have to be able to survive life as it is. Who are these people? They are the ones who are enjoined within the poverty lines of the human population living around the globe. Because of being poor, these individuals care less about their health since it is already hard for them to get by through the day looking for the simple necessities in life that they must have. Truthfully, this serious business of getting by everyday through hard work has caused many of them to lose sight of their most important possession which is their health. They at times forget to consider the fact that without good health, they are off to losing their jobs and are thus at the verge of losing everything that they ever enjoyed in life. In the discussion that follows, a direct presentation on how poverty actually affects the perception of human individuals towards health and how these perceptions directly affect the health situation of the said people under the effects of poverty. Literature Review Underdevelopment has long been an issue for many small countries around the world. The lack of ability to stand up alone and strong in the middle of a ‘wealth’ driven world indeed is a challenge for many countries known to be among the third world sector of the global economy. This is the main reason why sociologists aim so much in balancing the economic differences between different countries around the world. NO ONE wants to be poor. Yet today there are great masses of poor people everywhere. In many countries nearly all the population lives in poverty. World leaders call such nations “underdeveloped.” However, what they really are is poor. These lands are also called the “Third World,” being ranked below the wealthy countries and those nations that have some degree of wealth. Centuries ago limited communications kept most people in poor countries from observing how those in wealthier lands lived. However, today it is different. Poor people everywhere, because of newspapers, magazines, radios and television sets, are observing how “the other half” lives. They want to live that way too. Many authorities say that the world situation could get very explosive because of the rising expectations of poor nations. It is felt that if their situation does not improve, they may be willing to accept radical solutions to their problems. Moreover, it is also generally agreed that the day has passed when the poor nations could be convinced that their condition was simply “fate,” which they should accept passively. In spite of all the talk and effort toward “progress,” the number of poor people in the world increases. Today, when men travel to the moon and the power of the atom is harnessed, there are far more hungry, poorly clothed, inadequately housed and illiterate people in the world than ever before in history. There are numerous studies that pertain to the reasons behind the reality of the actual events of the worldwide events regarding the issue of underdeveloped countries. There have also been numerous theories designed through the said studies to be able to explain the reason behind the issue being discussed herein. For instance, John Degnbol-Martinussen said in his book Aid: Understanding International Development Cooperation, “the foreign relations between many countries worldwide mainly depend upon the economic status of each state. The ability to be n relation with other countries is usually dependent upon the fact that a country is required to have a certain considerable economic status in the world economy” (13). Saying this, Martinussen simply shows how the present society measures a country’s status through its economic status. This is mainly the reason behind the fact that there exist three divisions of economic class in the global setting of economic scale. Basing from the dependency theory, it could be identified that among the reason behind the status of underdeveloped countries is the fact that many poor sectors of the global economy remain as suppliers to the developed states. They serve as mere support to the ‘bigger or larger sectors’ of the human generation. The modernization theory on the other hand tries to show how much important developed countries are in the innovation of worldwide society. According to this theory, the capability of the developed sectors of the worldwide society helps the entire humanity to incur development. However, the current issues of worldwide development pertain to other truths, which are contrary to the suggested result of the said theory. Instead of being a sharer of development, the First World Countries tend to have all the benefits making it easier for them to become wealthier and the Third World Countries to grow even poorer. This is proven by a paradigm of developing economies known as the Import Substitution Model. This model shows the possibility of many underdeveloped communities to gain progress even without the assistance of the developed sectors of the society. As seen during the actual connection of the divisions of the countries in the world with each other, the higher sector usually oppresses the lower sector. In this regard, it has even been proven that in many ways, First World Countries are even more dependent to the Third World countries in many ways. The only edge that the First World countries have against the other sectors is wealth, and this wealth could have never been attained without the existence of the sources and the raw materials provided by the Third World nations. In an actual setting, Fantu Cheru in the book “African Renaissance: Roadmaps to the Challenge of Globalization, commented that “Africa, as a part of the Third World group of the economic scale in the world, it has been one of the most vital supplier of raw materials to the American regions. It could be concluded then that without the existence of African resources, the American regions would have a hard time dealing with their needs required for them to become a highly developed society” (15). The more important consideration to give attention to in this instance is that of the different effects that poverty has on the people that it directly affect. Practically, health has been repeatedly observed as a practical source of stress on the part of the poverty stricken population as this is one aspect that they are having particular problems with. The situation is that, poor ones have lesser finances allocated to actually having the chance to complete their health responsibilities to themselves and to those who belong to them; hence, instead of spending their money on health, they rather spend it on the basic necessities that they think are more important than actually assuring health safety and security. This is given proof through the diagram below: This diagram basically shows how ill health is resulted from the different causes of poverty by which poverty itself becomes a driving tool towards the reason of one being directly involved in health issues that causes him to be more subjected to financial problems making everything even worse than before. A more steady proof about this claim is presented below through the utilization of the results gathered from a general household survey that has been performed by the researcher of this study. Methodology The researcher of this study has practically utilized a general household survey that involved a certain bracket of economic division that aimed to directly give practical presentations as to how the divisions of economic standing among people affected their perception and their situation in health. This method has been carried out successfully through the use of a compatible sample population which included people who had work, people who were laid away from work and those who have been directly deprived of employment resulting to long time deprivation of self checks with regards their health situation. The said process yielding the findings that are to be presented in the following section of this research have been given a particular salutation by the researcher himself as it has been much useful in finding results to the issues requiring specific answers. Through the implicative design that has been imposed by the researcher with regards this study, it could not be denied that the collection of the sample population utilized for the data gathering method was impressively effective in getting the needed proof that poverty indeed affect the health expectancies of the individuals subjected under the said situation. To know more about the success of the applied methods for the completion of this study, the following section shall present the data collected and the premise of the major implications that the said results have in connection with the idea that is being proven in this study. Findings This section presents the different findings that have been garnered through the research process used for the completion of the collection of the data needed to find proper support for the idea being proven by the researcher through this study. The table presentation that follows this creates a practical indication that health could both be contributed by social standing as well as age. With the respondents coming from different ages and different walks of life and professions, the twelve-month observation of their health yielded the following outcomes: Respondents self-reported health on the whole in the previous 12 months   Data   General Health N % Good 495 58% Fairly Good 250 29% Not Good 109 13% Grand Total 854 100% Not asked of people aged 15 or less Respondents social class based on current or last occupation   Data   Social Class N % Recoded Variable Higher 256 29% Classes I & II Middle 422 48% Classes IIIN & IIIM Lower 194 22% Classes IV & V Grand Total 872 100% Not asked of people aged 15 or less Excludes Armed Forces Respondents age   Data   AGE N % 16-40 389 42% 41-65 366 40% 66-89 162 18% Grand Total 917 100% Excludes people 274 aged 15 or less From the table presented herein, it could be noticed that age bracket differences indicated a practical differences on their physical standing and the ways by which their physical health responds to their daily activities. In connection to that, cross referencing these results to the results garnered from that of the retained outcomes from the respondents who came from different economic and social standing based on the occupations that they worked/working for at present. The cross referencing results could be seen in the table presentation that follows. Calculating Correlation Co-efficients For The Relationship Between Health and Class OBSERVED FREQUENCIES Chi Square 27.31 AGE (All) Cramers V 0.13   Social Class Data               Higher   Middle   Lower   Total N Total % General Health N % N % N %     Good 161 67% 228 57% 82 45% 471 58% Fairly Good 53 22% 129 32% 61 34% 243 30% Not Good 25 10% 42 11% 38 21% 105 13% Grand Total 239 100% 399 100% 181 100% 819 100% EXPECTED FREQUENCIES AGE (All)   Social Class Data               Higher   Middle   Lower   Total N Total % General Health N % N % N %     Good 137.446886 58% 229.461538 58% 104.091575 58%     Fairly Good 70.9120879 30% 118.384615 30% 53.7032967 30%     Not Good 30.6410256 13% 51.1538462 13% 23.2051282 13%     Grand Total 239   399   181       CHI SQUARE AGE (All)   Social Class Data               Higher   Middle   Lower   Total N Total % General Health N % N % N %     Good 4.0360984   0.00930916   4.6885417       Fairly Good 4.52451624 0.95186685 0.99140802     Not Good 1.03851518 1.63805668 9.43275251     Grand Total             27.31   S=The number of rows or columns whichever is the smaller N=The total number of people in the table (not in the sample) The above presentation of the calculation of the correlation of class towards the people’s perception of their health has yielded a practical result of showing that the people having lesser financial resources are most likely to be involved in lesser care for their health practically due to the fact that they think that there are much more important matters above their health. Another particular proof to this fact is that of the graph presented herein: General Health by Social Class Source: 1995 General Household Survey Teaching Dataset, 1191 cases. Note: Analyses using these variables always exclude 274 people aged 15 or less General Health by Social Class Zero-Order Table AGE (All)   Social Class Data               Higher   Middle   Lower   Total N Total % General Health N % N % N %     Good 161 67% 228 57% 82 45% 471 58% Fairly Good 53 22% 129 32% 61 34% 243 30% Not Good 25 10% 42 11% 38 21% 105 13% Grand Total 239 100% 399 100% 181 100% 819 100% General Health by Social Class controlling for Age First-Order Tables. The test factor is age. AGE 16-40   Social Class Data               Higher   Middle   Lower   Total N Total % General Health N % N % N %     Good 79 76% 106 72% 39 55% 224 69% Fairly Good 20 19% 36 24% 24 34% 80 25% Not Good 5 5% 6 4% 8 11% 19 6% Grand Total 104 100% 148 100% 71 100% 323 100% AGE 41-65   Social Class Data               Higher   Middle   Lower   Total N Total % General Health N % N % N %     Good 65 67% 95 57% 31 40% 191 56% Fairly Good 21 22% 54 32% 26 34% 101 30% Not Good 11 11% 19 11% 20 26% 50 15% Grand Total 97 100% 168 100% 77 100% 342 100% AGE 66-89   Social Class Data               Higher   Middle   Lower   Total N Total % General Health N % N % N %     Good 17 45% 27 33% 12 36% 56 36% Fairly Good 12 32% 39 47% 11 33% 62 40% Not Good 9 24% 17 20% 10 30% 36 23% Grand Total 38 100% 83 100% 33 100% 154 100% This graph represents the yielded results from the tables presented above which directly pinpoints to the fact that the people situated at lower end of the economy does not necessarily have lesser care about their health but they have lesser financing to deal with the said need. Discussions Through the yielded findings, it could be observed how the poor ones try to directly utilize their resources to best find the most effective sources of life satisfaction. However, because of their controlled financing resources, they are only able to subject their money to basic needs and lesser attention to other matters that involve their health. Likely, when becoming sick, they are simply relying on alternative medicines and having lesser chances of getting professional attention from medical experts whom are supposed to give them the attention that they need to have. Why so? They are likely saving up for food, shelter and clothing not only for themselves but also for those who belong to them. Hence, as a result, many among these poor families have members who are subjected to mental illness due to the pressures that they are involved with everyday as presented to the diagram below: Yes, with this diagram presented, it could be observed how mental health is viciously affected by the stresses that are caused by poverty and the effects that have been threatening its development among lower end families. This proves the fact that the findings yielded through this study impresses the truth that poverty is a cause for many illnesses as it is and what more, being lesser able to care for one’s health makes the entire situation much harder to deal with. Gaining practical understanding from all the positive and negative results from this study, it could be seen how age, gender, poverty and wealth are all interrelated towards each other, giving proper indication that health is not simply controlled by financial stability itself. Instead, life overall presents the different challenges and the way humans respond to the said tests directly affects them personally and their health status as well. Apparently, if one has lesser financial resources to have themselves checked for particular ailments, this does not mean they do not have any other chances of being healthy anymore. Knowing the fact that they have less money to spend on massive medication and other medical procedures needed to be considered, it could not be denied that they could still deal with their health needs through simply being careful of what they eat, what they do and practically adjusting their lifestyle to a more healthy standing to avoid massive medications later on. True, health is an important aspect of life. It does not need to be very expensive though. Health is given to human individuals and protecting it costs less than having it repaired through medication. Cautious living and proper lifestyle is the primary resulting source of solution for the issue and not money alone. It is the perception of human individuals towards health that counts. True, the garnered results from this study indicates the possibility that poverty could be recognized to be among the most influential factor towards the ailment development among less-fortunate families, and yet it also proves that age and gender as well as lifestyle shows a derivative sense of realization that health status could be controlled through proper care and lesser consideration given to vices and other ill-contributing lifestyle that makes it harder for one to remain health. Conclusions Poverty is a full-grown problem in many countries around the world. It could not be denied that the effects of this problem is realized in countries around the world both that of the well developed countries and that of the less developed ones. Basically, this research then addresses the problem in a general approach and was able to create special resources of understanding as to what particularly needs to be given attention to by those who have the power and the capability to make a good change on the situations that the poor sectors of the society have had to deal with. With the yielded results and the presentations created to present the realities about the correlation of economic class and the health of the people involved in the said sector of the society, it could be noted how everything has been truthfully outlined towards a more important cause of adjusting the economic focus of countries towards the healthcare welfare of the ones belonging to the lower end of the social economy thus giving solutions to the growing problem of poverty and lower health status of the people enjoined in this status of the society. However, no matter how hard it is to deal with financial ups and downs in the society, it must be remembered that good health could be gained through proper living and simple remedies of remaining healthy through eating right food and remaining active. These remedies may not cost much, but they do work for the best results on the health of people young or old; rich or poor. References: John Degnbol- Martinussen (2003). Aid: Understanding International Development Cooperation. ZED Publications. Robert Chambers. (1983). Rural Development: Putting the Last First. Wiley Publication. John Rapley. (2002). Understanding Development: Theory and Practice in the third World. Lynne Rienner Publication. Fantu Cheru. (2002). African Renaissance: Roadmaps to the challenge of Globalization Zed Books. Valentine Udoh James. (1991). Urban and Rural Development in Third World Countries: Problems of Population in Developing Nations. McFarland & Company. Kurt Waldheim. (1991). “How the World fares”. The Atlantic Magazine. Sage publications. Georg Borgston. (1992). “The Poor Ones”. The Atlantic Magazine. Sage Publications. Read More