There are many different reasons why health inequalities exist due to many factors one extremely important one is social class. Socio-economic inequalities have been researched in the UK for many years.
In the early 20th century the government started an occupational census which gave the researchers the opportunity to examine health outcomes of social class. The five class scheme was introduced in 1911 and a variation has been used since.In 2001 the National Statistics Socio Economic Classification replaced the older version. Social class is a name used to identify people who are similar in their income and occupation. Depending on what group you belong to will have an impact on your health and life span.
It could be argued that this is not an effective way of researching as people flow in and out of social classes throughout their life.Social Class is linked to health because of four different reasons highlighted in the Black Report, The artifact approach is where the data between the higher and lower classes is not accurate enough, it’s a result of the way the data is source and collected. The social selection explanation is when people who are fitter and in better health have a better chance of being employed in better jobs. In comparison to people in lower social groups according to this theory will suffer more ill health and premature death because they are naturally less healthy and fit. Cultural explanations is when lifestyle choices are made regarding diet, smoking, exercise have an impact and make people less healthy than others in the higher social groups.
People from the lower class occupations work in more manual situations than the upper class occupations. This can have a bad effect on the manual workers health as they are exposed to lifting and harmful environments. Upper class professionals have a better standard of living and more disposable income than the lower class; in addition they have access to better education, healthcare and housing. With regards to education people from lower classes have a poor level of education which could lead to a low paid job in comparison to the higher classes where they have access to the best education and private tutors. Accommodation can have a huge impact on a person’s life chances if they live in poor deprived area in cramped conditions this will impact on their overall physical and mental health. Like gender and class having different ethnic groups do have different patterns of health and illness.
For example people who are Afro Caribbean have a higher rate of sickle cell anemia. With people from Asian background having a higher rate of heart disease. The material approaches suggest that most ethnic groups are materially deprived and are from a low occupation grouping.Their jobs are in industries which is hazardous to their health.
Ethnic minorities tend to live in poor housing in comparison to the majority ethnic group. Blackburn (1991) found that ethnic minorities are more likely to be made unemployed and redundant. Brown (1984) found that ethnic minorities are more likely to be housed in very poor accommodation. So evidence shows that black people are more likely than any other group to live in high rise accommodation with no garden.
Pakistani and Bangladeshi people tend to live in poor privately rented homes. They also tend to work long unsocial hours with overtime impacting on their health. Evidence shows that that there is inadequate treatment in the NHS because the health professionals are not trained properly with regards to religious, cultural and dietary requirements of multiple ethnic groups. This could be seen as offensive, threatening or irrelevant.The report said “The enquiry believes institutional racism is present throughout the NHS and greater effort is needed to combat it.
Until that problem is addressed, people from black and minority ethnic communities will not be treated fairly. The cultural, social and spiritual needs of the patients must be taken into account. A major government survey has found high rates of disease among people from ethnic minority background. A health survey for England found that the rate of smoking among Bangladeshi men is twice as higher than the general public. Evidence show that people from lower class backgrounds and ethnic minority’s backgrounds are more likely to suffer more health problems to the majority ethnic group this shows a pattern of inequality.
When looking at infant mortality rates in the lowest class evidence shows that double the amount of babies die in comparison to the highest class this can be linked to poverty the poorer you are the worse your chances are even at birth. These following factors increase the risk of infant death; the age of the mother aged less than 18 years is the highest and the lowest for mothers between 30 and 34. With the high teenage pregnancy epidemic and women from lower social class background the most at risk from losing their baby. Evidence shows that the social class of the baby’s father has an effect on mortality rates men from professional higher social classes have the lowest mortality rates in comparison to the lower social classes. There is a higher rate of infant mortality rates in boys than girls where as there is hardly any difference in the differences for still births. Female babies have more incidents of congenital anomalies.
This has led to narrowing gap between girls and boys rates of still birth. According to the office of national statistics the infant mortality rate in England and Wales is at its lowest level nationally.The current rate being under 6 per 1000 live births which comparable to the 1980s it’s been cut in half. Babies born in deprived areas have an overall lower birth rate than babies born to professional parents.
There are also the wide socio demographic differences with regards to breastfeeding babies born to parents in non-manual jobs 84% were breastfed in comparison to 64% of manual working parents. Collective research has shown that women out live men, although they appear to have more incidents off ill health. Men have a higher mortality rate from ischemic heart disease and lung cancer. With women suffering from tiredness and headaches, muscular pains.
Although the research can be questioned about the validity of the studies because there has been many studies and not all research shows gender differences. There appears to be more consistency in studies that look at anxiety and absence from work and depression. Here in the UK mortality rates overall are greater in men than women at all ages.When men are younger and in early adulthood, men are more likely to die from car accidents and other injuries for example accidental drowning and suicide which contributes to a much higher mortality rates in men and boys. In comparison to men women have a larger amount of disability than men; this increases the older the women become.
Women tend to have more morbidity from poor mental health especially those associated with depressive disorder (Acheson 1998). Social indicators can be used to explore higher mortality rates in men (scrambler 2008). The jobs men have tended to involve risky or dangerous machinery or could be exposed to toxic chemicals. Men are prone to take part in dangerous sports like motorbike racing and are at a higher risk of being in a road traffic accident and will drive faster than women when under the influence of alcohol in comparison to women. Before men used to smoke more than women, now the gender gap has narrowed recently.
Young girls are more prone to smoke than boys. Although when it comes to alcohol intake men drink more than women in all age groups. When comparing men and women’s health it is difficult to ananylise because the data collected does have some considerable gaps in knowledge therefore making it difficult to come to a conclusion.Looking at all these statistics has shown that life expectancy has continued to increase over time for males and females reaching 78.
4 and 82.4 in (2008-10). Inequalities exist all around the UK and the NHS are making efforts to target these issues it’s difficult to rely on certain research how up to date is it and did enough people take part. A kind finding from the national report shows that deaths from smoking related diseases continue to fall. With 225 per 100,000 (aged 35and up) in 2004-2006 from 234 in 2003-05. Although smoking is still the biggest killer and cause of death in the North of England in comparison to the south, with evidence showing the lowest class people smoking.
Studies suggest that health inequalities are due to differential lifetime socioeconomic circumstances and not primarily to health related social mobility. Although health status influences subsequent social mobility, people who are socially mobile because of poor health, especially those moving downward, are numerically too small to influence the overall levels of health in the social class they join.
