External Influences in Health Services

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Understanding Healthcare Organizations: External Influences Week 4 Socioeconomic Status and Cultural Influences in Healthcare External Influences Socioeconomic Status and cultural factors are external influences in health care. Socioeconomic Status a complex characteristic, generally understood to encompass not only income and education level, the measures most commonly used, but also a wide range of associated factors that may affect the quality of health care patients receive, including insurance status, access to care, patients’ health beliefs, and many facets of the doctor-patient relationship, such as trust and communication (Bernheim SM, Ross JS, Krumholz HM, Bradley EH, 2008). The idea that people have better education, income and lifestyles, are less exposed to factors that contribute to stress-related diseases such as heart disease. Because the level of stress is less than those who experience significant differences in environment, health risks are greater in those who experience job loss, crime infested neighborhoods and poor education systems. Those who experience stress could turn to drug abuse, smoking and alcoholism. These factors contribute to diseases such as stroke, lung disease and pneumonia. According to Healthy People 2010, social determinants of health reflect social factors and the physical conditions in the environment in which people are born, live, learn, play, work and age (www.healthypeople.gov). Examples of social determinants could be Availability of resources to meet daily needs, such as educational and job opportunities, living wages or healthful foods, exposure to violence, crime or social disorder, and socioeconomic conditions such as concentrated poverty (Healthy People, 2010). “The health-care system is itself a social determinant of health, influenced by and influencing the effect of other social determinants. Gender,
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