Social Inequalities Affecting Health - Essay Example

Download file to see previous pages This research will begin with the statement that since 1980, a series of government-funded reports have provided abundant evidence of the effects of social inequality on health inequalities. These reports include the Black Report, which outlines health inequality evidence by indicating that the risk of death for people of lower occupational classes was much higher than that of higher occupational classes at every stage of life. The other report is the health divide report, which claims that life expectancy differs between boys and girls and that girls live longer than boys do. Other reports like the Marmot report claims that the gap of health disparities between the rich and the poor is widening, and it offers suggestion on measures to be taken with an aim of improving health services, and policies. Health disorders are a result of numerous factors. To begin with, diet or food plays a major role in causing illnesses because the food is daily basis consumption. The health divide report claims that poor individuals in Britain eat poor diets and junk food that eventually cause health complications and obesity. In addition, lack of exercise causes health problems because the body becomes extremely rigid and inactive. Stress is another major contributor to bad health. This is so because people tend to exhaust their brains trying to solve their daily issues, which in turn lead to depression, insanity, and other health complications. Additionally, environmental and social factors affect people’s health....
This is usually the case because most workers encounter harmful substances and dangerous machinery. Ideally, lifestyle choices lead people to unfavorable health conditions. Alcohol, cigarettes and drugs are the most common adapted trends that have affected billions of people’s health (Cockerham, 2007). Statistics by the health divide depicts that men in a higher social class are four times more likely to be exposed and die of lung cancer than men in the low social class, and women from the top social class are three and half more times likely to die of coronary heart diseases than women in the low social class. Measuring social class Health inequality has classified individuals in socio-economic groups such as ethnicity, gender and social class (Braveman, 2012). However, the most common trend that hinders equal health distribution is social class. Social class is a result of numerous aspects that include education, occupation and wealth. In most cases, people from higher occupation belong to higher social class, for instance managers and individuals who work for the white color jobs are incomparable to skilled and casual workers. This gap extends to the health service opportunities where the lower class individuals do not access health services appropriately when compared to the higher social class. This means that people in lower social-economic groups are more exposed to chronic health and die earlier compared to individuals of a higher social economic group, or in other words, peoples’ health varies according to every other aspect of life (Smith, 2003). Research on health and class revealed that mortality and morbidity relate with an individual’s social class (Giddens & Griffiths, 2006). Britain’s Black Report ...Download file to see next pagesRead More