Inequalities in Health

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Discuss how inequalities in health may exist in relation to social class and health provision This essay will start with exploring what health inequalities are and expand how inequalities are affected in relation to social class and health provision. Within this essay it is going to look at various theories and reports that explain how inequalities was developed and how it still exist today. World health organisation (2012) defined health inequalities as differences in health status or in the distribution of health determinants between different population groups. Health inequalities stem from inequalities in people's early life experience, their education and occupational status, exposure to lifestyle and the environmental risks and diseases to which their life courses predisposes them. People in disadvantaged groups and areas tend to experience the poorest health but health inequalities exist across the population as a whole (Department of Health, 2007). The outcome of health inequalities are relatively current, pervasive and persistent (Marmot, 2010, cited in Health Select Committee, 2009) and there is an on-going discussion in the media on the factors of health inequalities and its relative contribution to unequal outcomes of education, social class, economic status, employment and ethnicity (Wilkinson & Pickett, 2010). National Equality Panel (NEP) reported in (Hill, et al., 2010) that inequalities within a minority group were substantial, often as great as, and sometimes greater than the inequality in the population as a whole. The term “health inequalities” is closely linked to “social determinants of health” (Marmot and Wilkinson 1999) as it refers to the multiple influences upon health status, including socioeconomic status, diet, education, employment, housing, and income. Social class is a measure that aims to locate one’s position in the social

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