The Impact of Health Inequalities on Health Education - Article Example

Discuss the Impact of Health Inequalities on Health education and Health promotion. Health is not only the absence of infirmity or illness, but also state of complete mental, physical and social well being. Different people have different perceptions about being healthy. It is very commonly believed that being in perfect shape and beautiful means being healthy (K M. Clark 1999), and to stay healthy one needs to eat nutritious food, do exercise and stay clean. When we fail to fulfil the conditions of staying healthy, it causes illness, which if not properly dealt with, may result in permanent ailments and even death. The main factors that lead towards state of being unhealthy are poor diet, obesity, pollution, unhygienic conditions, illegal drug usage and lack of exercise. Other reason for the rapid increase in the spreading of diseases is globalization. With millions of people crossing borders every day, and with the trade and exchange of food production, manufacturing and marketing, the risk of disease transmission increases manifold (Motarjemi et al, 1997). The dynamic way of living nowadays does not allow us to eat properly. Our eating habits are shifting from healthy food towards fast and junk food. We prefer to pick up a pizza or a hot dog, for lunch, rather than a healthy meal, since we no longer have the time for proper meals anymore. Most of the stomach problems, like ulcers, arise due to fast food. Unhealthy food and lack of exercise is one of the main reasons of heart diseases. In their study, Michalsen, König and Thimme (1998) stressed that many hospital admissions for decompensation of chronic heart failure in patients can be prevented if healthy food and proper medication is provided. Good hygiene does not only help in keeping oneself healthy, but also prevents diseases and infections from spreading. Hygiene, sanitation and water supply are closely related. Lack of sanitation facilities, poor hygiene and inadequate quantity and quality of water cause millions of people in the world to suffer from diseases like diarrhoea, intestinal worms, anaemia and retarded growth, which eventually leads to death. Underdeveloped countries are mainly facing such problems. Diarrheal illness constitutes the leading cause of death among the children in developing countries (Guerrant, Kirchhoff, Shields, Nations, Leslie, de Sousa, Araujo, Correia, Sauer, McClelland, Trowbridge and Hughes, 1983). Due to these disparities in the economies of developed and underdeveloped nations, there are a lot of discrepancies in the health standards of the people of these countries as well. Health inequalities refer to gaps in the quality of health and health care across sexual orientation, racial, socioeconomic and ethnic groups. A marked difference can be seen between the health conditions of developed and underdeveloped countries. The better the economy of a country, the better is the state of health. Health disparities exist between differing socioeconomic groups. The lower socioeconomic group have poorer health and higher rates of chronic illness, obesity, hypertension and diabetes. Differences also lie in access to health care between the two classes. Usually people in deprived areas receive less care than needed. Whereas the affluent areas have easy access to almost all kinds of medication and health care. Within a country, we can also see difference in the health standards between different racial groups. For example; in America, Latinos, Asian Americans, Native Americans and African Americans have higher mortality, higher rate of chronic disease and poorer overall health conditions. There is a need to change life styles of people to help them live a better and healthy life. This could be achieved through health promotions and educating them about health issues. Health promotion enables people to increase control over, and to improve, their health. It moves beyond a focus on individual behaviour towards a wide range of social and environmental intervention (WHO, 2011). Health promotion aims at influencing, informing, and supporting individuals and organizations so that they accept more responsibility and be more active in matters affecting mental and physical health. Health promotion can be performed in various locations such as community, health care facilities, schools, and worksites receive special attention. When it comes to health promotion, one can say that the health literacy is vital to it (Schmidt, Fahland, Franze, Splieth, Thyrian, Danielzik, Hoffman & Kohlmann, 2010). There is an immense need to make people understand the importance of health. Health education is a learning experience which helps individuals or communities to improve their health, by increasing knowledge or influencing their habits and attitudes. Health education is an effective tool to make underdeveloped countries aware of their health problems and improve their standards of health. This not only benefits the immediate recipients but also the future generations. Health education can prove to be very significant as it enhances life style and reduces premature deaths. Health education focuses on prevention, which reduces cost that individuals, communities and countries would spend on medical treatments. Most importantly it improves the health status of individuals and then the countries. A country with healthy individuals and communities tends to prosper more as healthy people work more efficiently. Worldwide, NGOs and government agencies are making considerable efforts in the region of health promotion. Some of these projects are international and/or multinational; World Health Organization and its Regional Offices such as the Pan American Health Organization have been influential in health promotion around the world. A France based organization, The International Union for Health Promotion and Education, holds regional, national and international conferences. While some organizations are working on national level such as Health Promotion Forum of New Zealand, Ministry of health promotion and Canadian Health Network, for the advancement of health promotion. One of the visible health promotion activities are lifestyle campaigns which are aimed at discouraging people from taking part in deeds likely to damage their health if continued. In such campaigns there are attempts to persuade policies relating to health or environmental factors impinging on the disease, such as introducing legislation to ban smoking in public places and under-age drinking. National campaigns are taking place each year, to co-ordinate activities and improve uptake and awareness public. The new trend is celebrating day or week dedicated to a particular cause, e.g. World AIDS Day, National Epilepsy Week or World Cancer Day (Public Healthy, 2008). These days (or weeks) are dedicated in spreading knowledge about the particular disease and ways how to prevent it. It is a very useful and cheap way of educating underdeveloped country as these campaigns are very much supported by the media. One very widely used campaign is “Every cigarette is doing you damage.” The objective is mainly to increase smokers’ knowledge about the cumulative damage done by every cigarette and major health effects of smoking. It is also aiming at ex smokers to stay stopped and increase the number of smokers who will seriously consider quitting smoking. To support this campaign papers were published like Smoking Kills which identified smoking related diseases (HPA, 2009). Reuser, Bonneux and Willekins (2009) research showed that smoking decreased Life Expectancy with 7.2 years, and Life Expectancy with disability with 1.3 years in men and 1.4 years in women. The first person who can be held responsible for one’s health is the person himself. As discussed earlier, by taking proper meals and staying clean, many diseases and trips to the hospital can be avoided. The education level, socioeconomic status and healthfulness of surroundings add to health outcomes. Doctors are often heard saying that if they can get their patients do what they want those patients to do, the patients will be better off. Now the question arises, is the patient only one responsible for the health and hygienic conditions? Do the civilization and the health care system of which we are a part provide us with suitable options? For instance, can diabetes patients get the healthy foods which they are instructed to eat? Are such foods affordable and available? Can heart disease patients exercise safely in their community? Even if asthma patients are taking their medicines, can they be assured that the dust in their apartment or the diesel bus that passes on their street will not make them short of breath? (Betancourt and Quinlan, 2007). With public health practitioners, the entire health community, industrialists, media, politicians and each and every citizen is responsible for the state of health of the community, country and the world. Government plays an important role in providing awareness regarding how to stay healthy and solving health related issues. Government have the power of financing, organizing, overseeing, and delivering health care. Government is also responsible for getting care to people who wouldnt otherwise have it; the underprivileged, the disabled, and the aged, many of whom could not afford it on their own. The governments role in health and health care does not end here but it goes into the realm of encouraging new discoveries related to health affairs (HPB 2009). There are some Government Organizations like U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps which are working to promote, protect, and advance the health and safety of the United States. Members of PHS often serve on the frontlines in fighting diseases and poor health conditions. They are trained and equipped to respond to emergencies such as natural disasters or terrorist attacks and public health crisis. Health care costs are continuously arising, resulting the government, employers and consumers to struggle to keep up with the increased costs. Major policy of the health care units is to cut off the costs. Rising federal deficit with an overall slowdown in the economic growth is also putting strain on the systems used to finance the health care. Things are made more complicated by the health disparities within the nation. The health care units have to divide their funds for improving the conditions in the rural areas and conducting health awareness programmes for them, and for research purposes. Bibliography Health Promotion, Public Health(y), 2008, viewed 21 Feb. 2011, http://www.publichealthy.com/healthpromotion.htm Betancourt J R, and Quinlan J, 2007, ‘Personal Responsibility Versus Responsible Options: Health Care, Community Health Promotion, and the Battle Against Chronic Disease’ preventing chronicle diseases, vol. 4, no. 3, viewed on February 22, 2011, from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1955416/ Clark K. M, 1991, Importance of Being Healthy, eHow, viewed on February 21, 2011 from http://www.ehow.com/about_4812268_importance-being-healthy.html Guerrant R. L, Kirchhoff L.V, Shields D. S, Nations M. K, Leslie J, de Sousa M. A, Araujo J. G, Correia L.L, Sauer K.T, McClelland K. E, Trowbridge F. L and Hughes J. 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