Social Determinant of Health That Is Impacted Upon by the Process of Globalization - Term Paper Example

Running Head: Social Determinant of Health Social Determinant of Health Insert name: Institution: Instructor: Module: Date: Introduction: These are the economic and social circumstances which people survive in which determine their health, i.e. whether an individual will fall sick or whether they will remain healthy. According to Raphael (2008), Social determinants of health are the economic and social surroundings that determine the physical condition and fitness of persons, communities, and jurisdictions as a whole. They also determine the extent to which a person owns the physical, social and private affluence to recognize and attain individual objective, satisfy needs and tolerate in an environment. Nearly all major diseases are mostly as a result of interacting exposures that boost or reduce the peril for the disease. World Health Organization found out that healthy issues at past were not considered to be of great importance other than for the provision and financing of medical care, whereby medical care is only given to extend survival and improve diagnosis following some severe disease. At present, social health is determined by those conditions (social or economic), that cause people to be unwell and in want for medical care in the first place. These conditions include: Income and social status Social support networks from the government Education regarding personal and social health Employment and Working Conditions Social and Physical situation individual health habits and survival skills Healthy child development skills Biology and hereditary factors Gender Cultural practices in a society. In the presence or the absence of the above conditions, a society’s health will either be affected positively or negatively. In other words, the absence certain conditions in the society may result to the existence of unfavorable health condition and the vice versa. Recently, international attention in the social determinants of health has led to the World Health Organization's to form a Commission on the Social Determinants of Health and a ultimate report written in ‘Closing the Gap in a Generation’, states that social health is a matter of life and death which affects people’s way of life, their consequent chance of illness and their risk of premature death. In an example, a child born today can live longer if he/she is born in a certain country, but we find that if born in another country the same child will live for a very short time. There is a remarkable distinction in health that is closely associated with the scope of social drawback among countries (Atkinson, 1998). Education as a major determinant of health Education is the largest requirement in the life of any individual. It is the process by which a society deliberately passes on its achieved knowledge, skills and values from one generation to the other. The process of education is also referred to as schooling when the education involved is that deals with teaching certain subjects. Education is a notion, referring to the procedure in which a learner can attain knowledge relating to some topic or field. The role of education in the world has confirmed to furnish the people by spreading information, teaching of lessons and simply giving the reward of knowledge which assist individuals formulate their own informed choices in life.  An educated mind can go beyond the limits set out by society and can make wise decisions concerning their health, achievement and general well being by basically using the basis.   The level of education one has achieved is directly linked to the health of that person, whereby it determines the person’s excellence of life and life anticipation, it also determines how well educated an person is concerning the simple standard of living choices that play important roles in helping or deteriorating the body. Such lifestyle standards include: tobacco use, food choices, stress management and physical exercise. The general fitness of a person, or more specifically their morbidity and mortality understanding, is mainly strongly predicted by their socioeconomic status, (Winkleby, 1992, p816). A person who has a higher level of education will have more diplomacy to face life and deal with its occurrences than the one who has no education at all. Mostly, it is evident that those people with poor eating habits, drug abuse, and poor sanitation are those whose education background is low. It is evident that most people who turn to drugs as a relieve from the harsh economic and social condition but what they do to the involved parties is to drain them of their income and they are usually a major cause of ill health and premature death. Unless proper education is offered especially to the young people, there is a danger poised at the future generation because the indulgence of drug abuse by the young people is causing a lot of deaths at the early stages. Again those who have low education will not get well paying jobs and this will force an individual to live a life that is below the required standards of living which on the other hand will affect the health standards of an individual, a family and the society at large. Low income suppresses individual needs to excellent diet, good housing, good medical services and all the basic healthy lifestyle (Grennerster et al, 1998). It is evident that in most developing countries people eat just to survive, not considering the required constituents in a diet. At times it is almost impossible to get that particular meal and when it is available, it is not in the right diet portions. This is a major threat to the people involved because most of the times they tend to draw back by choosing other options which they think will save them the terror. Some opt for drugs, others immorality while others will end up choosing suicide as the best option. Education allows the mind to develop to a level where an individual can make the best choices regarding what to do and what not to do in life. In view of the fact that education starts at a very tender stage of a human being, one learns many aspects present in life, and will not be discouraged by what he/she finds in life because the mind is well prepared that such things are present. knowledge achieved in life include contribution in adult and society learning programs has been introduced to develop skills, raise community involvement and contribution to the economic well being of families, communities and regions. The problem of illiteracy is that most people come to face real life while they are very old such that they will not be able to deal with unfamiliar occurrences which propel them to do very queer things despite the age. Illiterate people might be rich and this will make them even worse because they will misuse the resources to destroy their health. They might take drinking, unsafe sex practice and corruption to compensate them for the low self esteem that is usually common in them. These unsafe and unhealthy practices are the major causes of poor health due to lack of education, i.e. Unsafe sex can cause a lot of sexually transmitted diseases including AIDs the major epidemic in almost all African countries. Bad eating habits will cause nutritional diseases like obesity, cancer, diabetes etc. Education improves an individual’s level of self esteem, in that the person can understand why various issues are happening in life (social), and will be in a position to deal with the issues without having to blame anyone, anything for what have befallen them. An individual through education will know his/her rights and they will not suffer as a result of oppression in either their places of work or even in the society. Oppression will in most cases cause stress a sign of poor health, and stress can reduce life expectancy of an individual (Greenhough & Hughes, 1998). Though there are those who oppose constructive living regardless of their level literacy, a big percentage of the learned people lead a healthy life. Learned people will know the best diet to eat, the best measures to take when one is ill, when to stop consuming something that is poising a health hazard in ones body and will always detect bad eating habits, drinking habits or any other negative factor to his/her health. It is through this that we find that most educated people portray a very high physical, mental and even social fitness. Sometimes it is not only, the education that matters, there is specific information which people should be given as they grow regarding the society and individual health. This will improve the approach of personal health and hygiene by individuals and it will in turn yield incredibly excellent results to the individual and the community at large. Where personal health is improved, the public health will also be affected positively, thus we say improved personal health is improved public health and this raises a healthy nation. In real life setup, you will find a situation where a family that has neglected to acquire information concerning the general way of life suffering health wise, e.g. one family in an African setup has all its members suffering from sight problems due to the ignorance of parents to the kids at infant stage, if the parents were well informed concerning the health problems poised to the sight of their kids, they would have done something to ensure that the danger is minimal or even prevented completely. Another family suffered from malnutrition from the old to the youngest. Ignorance is usually a key item in these homes and it has caused even death but the involved parties do not even realize what the cause of their encounters is. Lack of education is related with poverty, starvation and poor health and in most cases; there are usually very high rates of infant and child mortality (Raphael, 2008). The lifestyle of such people often leads to chronic illnesses. This may be contributed by a low degree/knowledge of health making it hard to learn and adopt healthy alternatives. Illiterate people in the society are more helpless in terms of employment and running transformation and are much likely to fail in contributing to any local campaign that might aim to advance any communal or environmental conditions, unlike those who have gone through a higher level of education, i.e. university, who will extensively be involved in public affairs such as using public space, participation in sports and attending council and other important public meetings, and participation in political campaigns or local action groups. The way young children learn and understand what they learn is strongly determined by parental and care invested to them at the very tender stage of their development. If a safe and a good learning environment is provided to children and young people, there is an increased sense of belonging to that particular school and the society at large. The sense of belonging act as a protection against a range of health issues including depression, violence, unsafe sexual activities and alcohol, tobacco and substance misuse. Programmes which inform young people about health, life skills and flexibility can be initiated to protect such problems and enhance general well being and fitness. Healthy people will most of the time show a sense of relation to the family, friends and the extended community. Learned people have firm confidence of what they know, can make wise decisions on their own, solve issues and formulate resourceful involvement to the society (Dolton & Vignoles, 1996). Through learning a persons develops interpersonal and life proficiency that enables a person to comprehend others and to build relationships among other people and groups. There are certain factors that can be implemented in a society by the government to improve the early education in the lives of the citizens. They include: Venture in early childhood growth and education so as to attain protective health effects throughout the life course. Interaction between health and education ministries to add quality to both health and informative outcomes. Introduction of rewards and trophies to those who undergoes through a certain course can encourage many people to join schools and learn. Introduction of sponsorship programs to those unprivileged young people will improve the number of learned people in the general public and this turn will help many people learn about health and take action. Enhancement of public hygiene education and provision of social amenities by the government can be used to improve the public health and this will control those diseases which are usually as a result of poor sanitation. Significance of Education as a Social Determinant of Health Education is a sturdy forecaster of long-term health and eminence of life. It is clear that health, human advancement and fitness are dynamic processes that are closely related to socioeconomic position and learning accomplishment. An individual’s health is highly associated with his or her social position, and triumph in school and years of training are major factors in influencing social and professional grade in maturity. Genetic, ecological and social encounters that take place throughout the entire lifetime control the good health and ill health, but in the initial years of an infant's life signify an important phase in which the roots of erudition, literacy and the adaptive behaviors that uphold physical and emotional health must be nourished. In scientific medicine, we study on the significance of risk factors in understanding and supervising sickness. To mention but a few, smoking, lack of regular exercises and supplementary daily living skills which mainly start at infancy as well as teenage years. Medical prose hardly ever informs us concerning the risk factors most crucial to human health and development: revenue, learning, the family background and working conditions. Burchardt et al (1998, p.228) argues that there is a close liaison between early life situations, performance in school, adult education, health status and mortality. suitable inspiration and constructive life experience have reflective impact not only on the growth of the nerve systems present in cognitive and emotional functions, and also on the expression of biological factors that alter the effects of hormone receptors and control an individual’s reaction to stress throughout life. This genetically embedding of response to stress helps locate developmental route for the possession of proficiency and enduring skills and directive of responses to new or challenging experiences. U.S educational policies strongly support the basic education of children from the age 5 or 6 through ages 16, and more emphasis is expressed to support the access of post-secondary education and this rates U.S education ministry to have the highest enrollment in the world for university and post-secondary education. Political-economic boundaries are artifact of the country’s education financing structure. In developed countries such as the United States, it is a responsibility of the government to ensure that proper care is taken to children and quality education is provided, while in most countries, it is the responsibility of the municipalities to ensure education and child care is provided. Poorer communities that must run their schools from a levy foundation much slighter than their richer neighbors are critically underprivileged unless there is some kind of equalization procedure. A proved method strengthen a healthy state in the whole society is to deal with those strategies that encourage both early childhood development and learning. The important elements of a personal development strategies include proper prenatal care, provision for parental training and financial support where essential, excellent child care delivered by expert child development professionals, progressive introduction of basic education commencing at a few months of age and regular evaluation to make certain that developmental and cognitive future ahead is being met prior to a child’s entering kindergarten. Relationship between Social Exclusion and Education Social exclusion is the condition of being unable to access the essential requirements in life that nearly all societies approves to be crucial. According to the government the term is defined as a complex process which involves the deficiency or defiance of resources, privileges, goods and services, and the incapacity to contribute in the usual relationships and activities existing in the majority of people in the general public, it could either be financial, social, cultural or political fields. Social Exclusion influences both the eminence of existence of individuals and the fairness and unity of the general public as a whole (Atkinson, 1998). It is confirmed that education increases efficiency as it equips individuals with proficiency and acquaintance that is extremely reflected in income and rates of labor market contribution. We find in countries where education has not been emphasized to be of importance being the worst hit by social exclusion since most citizens of such countries are very poor. Extensive amendments in the financial system like the emergence of well paying service jobs have revealed other significant opportunities, to those with the required education qualifications. Tony Blair recognizes the significance of obtaining education and increasing human resources as a way out of social exclusion, he quotes that in today’s world, the more you increase your level of learning the more your earnings increase. From this point of view the optimistic relationship between learning and earnings take place since they are basically derived in an individual’s capability to apply the knowledge achieved. Achievement of education helps individuals to apply their high level ability and this provides valid information to employers concerning the qualifications required of an individual to succeed in a certain position available. Analysis by Green et al shows that there is an increasing supply of high level of qualifications which has led to change in the demand for employment. We find that many employers are going for the best qualified candidates and this have brought up the devaluation of education as more people becomes more educated with higher level of education. The only dynamic approach to increasing output is improving the learning levels and test achievements which will serve to deform all industrial policies in directions that might not improve overall productivity. Recognizing the whole scheme of changes that are essential to enhance efficiency and placing education in the framework as a key aspect to great triumph. New economic hypothesis grant a convincing confirmation of the significance of education and training as a policy to condense social exclusion. Conclusion: It is evident that education is one of the basic factors for a developing nation to be successful; therefore, enhancing the system in a country will save the government a lot of resources which are usually taken by the ministry of health trying to cater for those who have fallen victims of poor living standards. If the funds saved by the state to cater for medical services will be put in other development projects of a country, the country will not only be rich financially but also health wise. And as the saying goes, a healthy nation is a working nation, and a working nation is a wealthy nation. Health specialists need to pay interest to threat factors of discrimination and give their patients the information and resources they require to sign up in suitable profitable, education and child care programs that aid families living in poverty. They are also encouraged to take positive policy that will help overcome inequalities that they take when they advocate against smoking, or in support of early childhood immunizations. It is clear that if great emphasis is manifested in the early childhood development and education, a state could lead a significantly healthy nation. References: Atkinson, A.B., 1998. Social exclusion, poverty and unemployment. London: London School of Economics. Burchardt, T., Le Grand, J. & Piachaud, D. 1998. Social Exclusion in Britain 1991-1995, Social Policy and Administration, Vol.33, no. 3, pp. 227-244. Daniel, S. 1995. Can pre school education affect children’s achievement at key stage One. Oxford Review of Education, Vol.21, pp.163-178. Dolton, P. & Vignoles, A. 1996. The impact of school quality on labour market Success in the UK. University of Newcastle. Glennerster, H., Noden, P. & Power, A.1998. Poverty, social exclusion and place, paper Presented at the SPA conference. Lincoln, mimeo: London School of Economics. Greenhough, P. & Hughes, M. 1998. Parents’ and teachers’ interventions in children are Reading. British Educational Research Journal, Vol. 24, no.4, pp 379-398. Levitas, R., 1996. The concept of social exclusion and the new Durkheimian Hegemony. Critical Social Policy, Vol.46, pp. 5-20. Raphael, D. 2008. Public policy and population health in the USA: Why is the public Health community missing in action? International Journal of Health Services. Winkleby, M.A., Jatulis, D. E., Frank, E., & Fortmann, S. P., 1992. Socioeconomic Status and health: How education, income and occupation contribute to risk factors for cardiovascular disease. American Journal of Public Health, 816820. Wilkinson, R. G., 1997. Socioeconomic determinants of health: Health inequalities: Relative or absolute material standards. Trafford Centre for Medical Research University of Sussex Brighton. Volume 314:517. Read More