Ill health in the UK is monitored through statistics. These statistics are collected from birth and death certificates as well as censuses and other sources. Statistics can also be found in the Black Report 1980, the Acheson Report 1998, and Saving Lives: Our Healthier Nation 1999, Tackling Health Inequalities: A Programme for Action 2003 and Choosing Health: Making Healthy Choices Easier 2004. The Black Report 1980 found that there was an inequality in health across social classes and there is a huge difference between the mortality and morbidity rates across the social classes. The mortality rate was higher for those of a lower social class.
This is due to social class. The higher the class the higher the standard of care. Researchers found that some of the 7500 deaths that are among people younger than the age of 65 could have been prevented could have been prevented if inequalities in wealth narrowed to their 1983 levels. If a baby girl is born in leeds she is more than twice as likely to die in the first year of life compared to an infant girl growing up in a dorset town. Alot of studies into health inequalities rely on morality, death, and morbidity, illness, data.
4.13 Health Behaviour The data set presented information on the health behavior of respondents in the urban poor communities. From Table 4.4 below, the highest proportion (41.3 percent) of respondents had Bad health behavior, followed by fair health behavior (32.6 percent), very bad health behavior (20.3 percent) and Good health behavior with the lowest proportion of 5.8 percent. It can be seen that the majority of the respondents had very bad behavior while the lowest proportion reported Good health behavior. This means that 4 out of 10 respondents had Bad health behavior while 6 out of 10 had bad and very bad health behaviour. 5.0 Introduction This chapter looks at the association between the independent variables (background characteristics) and dependent variable (health behavior).
Sociological Approaches to Health and ill–Health P2 – Explain different sociological approaches to health and ill-health In this criteria I will be explaining the health and ill-health in different sociological perspectives. Health is the condition of our body working effectively. Therefore, health is the physical, mental and social well-being of the absence of being ill or having a disease. Ill-health is when your body is not functioning well, you may have a disease, an illness and be sick. This is the opposite of health.
Ethnicity has repeatedly been shown to be a strong indicator of health status. Deprivation, socioeconomic factors such as income, education and unemployment, is recognised as a major indicator of health. These are demographic characteristics that will influence services, for example if a local community have a particularly high number of older people then residential homes and nursing homes are going to be more important that than services for children like nurseries and playgroups. I have chosen to look at teenage pregnancies and child poverty in Norfolk. Child Poverty Many children and young people in Norfolk face a variety of disadvantages that mean they are less likely to have positive outcomes for their lives.
Examples of not being healthy includes lack of energy, not coping with life, having a serious illness and being in bed/hospital. Why do sociologists believe that health and illness are social constructions? Sociologist believe that health and illnesses are social constructions because who knows what the true definition of health and illness is? Both are very relevant to how the given person perceives the illness, is a headache an illness? The same headache might affect one person much more severely than another, people's pain thresholds differ and
The Degree of Control Individuals can exert over their Health ample Modifiable and Non- Modifiable health determinants: Modifiable Health Determinants: This refers to those determinants that can be changed or controlled so they have a different level of influence on our health. If an individual has a greater sense of control over their life then they are more likely to be empowered to modify behaviours that impact negatively on their health. Control over our health increases when we can: * Acquire information * Make choices * Manage a situation that may be threatening * Use the skills that we possess. The mutual relationship between the individual and their social and economic circumstances is central to the control we are likely to exert over our health. Being in a position of socioeconomic advantage provides us with access to physical and social resources e.g.
The reasons for these inequalities are linked with socioeconomic status, ethnicity, gender and the geographical area in which people live. There is also statistical evidence which highlights the fact that Maori, Pacific Islanders and people from lower socioeconomic backgrounds are dying at a younger age and generally have poorer health than other New Zealanders (Ministry of Health [MOH], 2002). The Reducing Inequalities in Health report (MOH, 2002) states that the primary causes of health inequality in New Zealand are directly related to the distribution of and access to resources such as income, education, employment and housing. The report also states that another major influence on this inequality in health is the difference in how and when people access health care services and how that care may differ between those receiving the services. This is also said to have a significant impact both on peoples’ health status and mortality rates.
Sociology Being ill is not a simple thing! Why do sociologists see it as being a problem? When we think of health and illness, there is a general conception that it involves health habits such as exercise and eating the right food, as well as institutions such as hospitals and doctors. In Western societies it is commonly accepted that if we are ill it is a result of an infectious disease that can be cured by modern medicine, or is a result of genetics or lifestyle choices. Sociologists propose a different cause.
The medical model looks at the body as a machine, where if it were to break down, a doctor would take on the role of an engineer and attempt to fix it. Unlike the social model, the medical model of health does not take into account social aspects which can also have an effect on health and illness. The social model of health tends to focus on sociological factors, linking illness to things such as poverty, poor housing and unemployment. Eg, the impact that poverty and social class has on illness and health are reflected in life expectancy figures. Although life expectancy in the UK has risen, there is still a gap in life expectancy between the middle class and the working class.