Social Determinants of Health - Assignment Example

Social Determinants of Health Student’s Name Institution Social Determinants of Health Question A Social determinants of health include the socioeconomic factors that have a bearing on a person’s state of health. Different key sociological issues may affect a person’s state of health, including working conditions, cultural background, socioeconomic standing, and poverty. According to Wilkinson and Marmot (2003), working conditions can have a bearing on the health of a person. For example, an individual working under a nerve-racking environment or in a place where they feel demoralized may build up some psychological complications, which could eventually lead to high blood pressure, stress, decrease in immunity, depression, and even heart related diseases and complications. According to ACS Distance Education (2011), socioeconomic standing is an extensive term used to articulate the general lifestyle of an individual, which comprises their wealth, education, occupation, and monthly income. Socioeconomic standing bears an effect on a person’s health since individuals who fit into different levels of socioeconomic status have corresponding dissimilar access to medicines, healthy food and proper cooking methods, and physical activity facilities. In addition, individuals who find themselves in the lower socioeconomic class may suffer from a low sense of worth and social exclusion, which eventually lead to poor psychological health (Schiraldi, 2009). Poverty, on the other hand, plays a vital role in the decline in health status of a person (World Health Organization, 2014). This is owing to the fact that it denies individuals fine access to favorable housing, food, transport, medication, and other necessities vital to a person’s state of health. Poverty may lead to premature deaths, especially among children and people who live in the streets (Reuters Health, 2009). The cultural background of a person may possibly also affect their state of health. For instance, in societies where food is limited, weight gain is regarded as a positive attribute whereas in many cultures/countries, corpulence or obesity is considered a risk to human health. Some cultures also regard junk food as an extraordinary treat and an indication of high-class living. In such cultures, the general wellbeing of a child is measured by the quantity of weight they gain. This can bear a harmful effect on the health of individuals who abide by such cultures. Question B The evidence for the social determinants of a population can be found by carrying out a research on the religious beliefs, education, social status, family structure, cultural backgrounds, industrialization, and health care of the populace. The evidence gathered on various religious backgrounds can reveal that some religious beliefs are against family planning, especially the use of condoms (Galea, 2007). In this case, strict believers such as the catholic pro-life members are likely to encourage population increase. This means that countries that are always guided by such religious beliefs are prone to high growth in population. Apart from religious beliefs, various studies on the relationship between education and population can also reveal that high literacy rates lead to low population rates (Pandey, 2005). For instance, highly educated people are likely to be exposed to various literatures on proper family planning strategies and the significance of birth control. On the other hand, illiterate people may lack proper information on the importance of contraceptives, contributing to a rise in population. The social status of an individual is also a social determinant of a population. For example, there is a wide perception that a woman from a high-class status is more likely to marry at an advanced age in her life than her low class counterparts. This means that it will take long for her to bear children, which ends up affecting population growth. For that reason, a research on the social status of individuals can be a source of evidence for the social determinants of the society’s population (Heller, 2005). Family structure also has a bearing on any particular population. Families who value child labor and regard children as sources of income normally bear excess children to ensure maximum exploitation of their offspring. In addition, there are evidences of various cultural backgrounds that encourage polygamy; consequently, this also has a bearing on a population. Question C Aboriginal health is majorly determined by several social factors that relate to their cultural beliefs. Health professionals regularly find it difficult to provide health care to the Aboriginal people due to the cultural disparity that exists between the conventional and Aboriginal cultures, predominantly with regard to systems of health belief (Carson, Dunbar, & Chenhall, 2007). The discrepancy between the Aboriginal culture and typical Western customs seems to amplify the difficulties experienced in every cross-cultural setting of health service delivery (Selin & Shapiro, 2003). Most of the social determinants of the Aboriginal health are due to their strict belief in superstition and divine intervention. Firstly, gender disparity plays a significant role in Aboriginal health, especially in the administration of health care. In Aboriginal culture, there are certain health practices that can only be done by either men or women, but not all (Bonvillain, 2001). In most cases, women are treated by their female counterparts, whereas male doctors handle male patients. This means that a male doctor cannot undertake a vaginal inspection and a female nurse cannot teach an Aboriginal man about self-catheterization. As a result, a breach of this traditional gender division, for instance a male doctor helping a woman in emergencies, is likely to cause shame, distress, depression, and fear of breaking a particular taboo (Freud, 2000). Secondly, the customary health beliefs of the Aboriginal populace are interrelated with numerous characteristics of their customs such as kinship obligations, land policies, and religion (Boulton-Lewis, Pillay, Wilss, & Lewis, 2002). The socio-medical structure of health beliefs, which the Aboriginal people hold, stresses much emphasis on spiritual and social dysfunction being responsible for ill health (Shahid, Finn, Bessarab, & Thompson, 2009). This approach puts much emphasis on the fact that the well-being of an individual has been always dependent on the successful emancipation of obligations to land and the society (Boulton-Lewis, Pillay, Wilss, & Lewis, 2002). This implies that the Aboriginal culture regards an individual’s social obligation and responsibilities much higher than a person’s state of health. Breach of a taboo or failure to uphold certain social obligations is believed to be one of the main sources of illness (Warry, 2008). Consequently, a person would rather seek to appease the spirits in case of a serious infection instead of seeking medical attention (Shahid, Finn, Bessarab, & Thompson, 2009). This can lead to a serious health effect on the life of such Aborigines. The socioeconomic status of the Aboriginal people has been a major social determinant of their health (Dowd, Chong, Nixon, & Gray, 2010). This status includes factors such as unemployment, poor income, run-down housing, and poor education, all pointing to adverse levels of poverty. The indigenous Australians, for instance, have always been subjected to extreme levels of poverty since colonization (Dowd, Chong, Nixon, & Gray, 2010). Research has shown that poverty among the Aborigines has been the reason behind high infant mortality rates and communicable diseases in the culture (Broome, 2002). It denies individuals fine access to favorable housing, food, transport, medication, and other necessities crucial for a person’s state of health and may lead to premature deaths (Raphael, 2004). Lower socioeconomic status of the indigenous Australians can also explain the poor infant diet among the community, which may later lead to chronic ailments, especially in advanced stages in life. The Aboriginal culture classifies various causes of illnesses into five major categories, some of which do not need urgent medication and spiritual help (Shahid, Finn, Bessarab, & Thompson, 2009). According to the Aborigines, diseases are caused by natural, environmental, as well as direct and indirect supernatural and emergent causes (Burbank, 2010). This means that the culture does not consider the existence of disease-causing microorganisms such as bacteria, viruses, and fungi. For instance, diarrhea and headaches, which are common symptoms of bacterial infections, are believed to occur due to jealousy, anxiety, and shame, which they term as natural causes. In addition, loss of weight and appetite is believed to be a temporary state of body weakness, which does not need medical attention and will cease with time. On the other hand, Lockwood (2009) explains that illnesses such as skin sores, leprosy, madness, epilepsy, and pneumonia occur as a result of direct supernatural causes. For instance, such cases of illnesses occur after a breach or transgression of some customary laws and taboos. For that reason, the only possible cure is through treatment by sorcerers or traditional Bushmen as opposed to going to the hospital (Shahid, Finn, Bessarab, & Thompson, 2009). This can have adverse effects on the health of the Aboriginal people, especially where critical conditions like mental disorders or pneumonia are involved. Another social determinant of the Aboriginal health is the poor compatibility linking the core values of their customary health beliefs and the modern health system. The westernized medical system is mostly interested in the detection and treatment of diseases and illnesses. On the other hand, the traditional Aboriginal medication seeks to offer a meaningful justification for illnesses and reacts to the family, personal, and community issues related to the illness (Broome, 2002). This explains why most rural Aborigines are reluctant to embrace the modern health care systems and practices, thus affecting their state of health. Their strict adherence to traditional medication is because it is able to explain both the how and why elements of an ailment (Broome, 2002). As a result, the Aboriginal people have always used the approach of domain separation to categorize diseases into Aboriginal and Western categories (Moodley, 2005). This strategy entails reasoning in terms of divided social or cultural domains and making decisions on when to use the rules of each of them, which could either be the Western or Aboriginal categories. This approach is used not just in the health beliefs alone, but also in other sectors as a reaction to cultural improbability in order to trim down social intricacy and strain, and to deal with social impasses. According to Lockwood (2009), there is a mixture of behavioral patterns of searching for medical support, which the traditional Aboriginal people use when sick. As explained by Taylor and Guerin (2010), these patterns include: compartmental, which is seeking traditional medication for circumstances that have well-known traditional justifications; sequential, which entails using one practitioner followed by another type of specialist, for instance, Western followed by traditional; and concurrent, which entails the simultaneous application of modern and traditional forms of health care. Traditional ownership of land is also a social determinant of Aboriginal health (Boulton-Lewis, Pillay, Wilss, & Lewis, 2002). Various case studies have indicated that the introduction of customary laws that allow for traditional land access and acquisition has a bearing on the health of various Aboriginal people (Read, 2000). Allowing the Aborigines to access their native lands enables them to have a reconnection with their customary economic foundations, which in turn leads to improved diet and other corresponding health benefits. In conclusion, these social determinants of Aboriginal health should be highly respected by Western/modern health practitioners when attending to the health needs of the former (Thomson, 2005). Medical doctors need to carry out thorough research on these social determinants in order to avoid any side effects, which may result due to existing cultural disparities between Aborigines and other Australians (Caron, 2006). For that reason, in whichever health-related circumstances, the Aboriginal people need to be provided with a comprehensive explanation of the sickness or death together with the cause. This biomedical clarification must respect any traditional justifications of the causes of the disease and death presented by the patient or their relatives. 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G., & Marmot, M. G. (2003). Social determinants of health: The solid facts. Washington, DC: World Health Organization. World Health Organization. (2014). Poverty. Retrieved from http://www.who.int/topics/poverty/en/ Read More