Determinants of Health - Essay Example

Download file to see previous pages The life and progress of every community are greatly dependent on the health of its individuals. There has been a tremendous advancement in the field of medicine and health for mankind recognizes the health of people as the most basic necessity of a loving society. More recently, this has also pushed scientific attention to probe what are the underlying determinants of health in modern societies in the first place? Interestingly, quite significant sensitivity has been noted of health to the environment and the to what is referred to as the social determinants of health (Whitehead 1992). These factors can be broadly characterized into two classes: personal i.e., pertaining to the individual human being, and environmental i.e., those coming from the surroundings at large. In, what follows, the paper discusses some of these factors and throws light on their interrelation to the entire community and relevance to health and well-being. Social living conditions come first and foremost in determining health. Life expectancy is shorter and most diseases are more common as you move down the social ladder in each society (Morris 2000the ). Economic and social conditions characterized by poverty affect health throughout life. The lower end of the social hierarchy runs twice the risk of serious diseases and early deaths as compared to the top end (Bartley 2002). This can be both because of physical and/or psychological factors, for example, raising a very large family, having poor housing or lack of private assets. In addition, the greater the length of time spent in such conditions, the more adverse the effects. The negative impacts of these factors keep on concentrating over the same people over time and the constant psychological and physical suffering gradually becomes a permanent fact of their lives, silently taking away good health from their lives for good (Barker, Osmond, Simmonds 1992).    ...Download file to see next pagesRead More