Social determinants of health and their effects

The assignment is based on the impacts of one of social determinants of health called poor socioeconomic status on the health and well-being of individuals in different communities. Social determinants of health can be described as conditions in the environment in which the people are born, work, play, live, learn, worship as well as age. These conditions are seen to affect a wide range of health as well as functioning and quality-of-life outcome and risks. The social determinants of health have been described in studies as multifaceted circumstances in which people are born and live and these circumstances can affect their health (Glymour, Avendano & kawachi, 2014). These are seen to include various tangible factors that include political, and even the socioeconomic and different cultural constructs. It may also cover different place-based conditions. The place-based conditions include available healthcare and teaching systems, safe environmental situation, well planned neighborhoods and availability of organic food (Erreygers & Kessels, 2017).  One of the most important social determinants of health that has huge impact on the health and well-being of individuals is the socio-economic class to which they belong. The main themes that would be covered in the essay are impacts of socioeconomic status on education achievement, income, employment, aspect of alcohol drinking which can indirectly affect health. Other themes are the impacts of poor socioeconomic class can result in alcohol drinking and tobacco disorder, depression and anxiety and many others.

The socioeconomic status is closedly associated with health conditions and the quality of life of the individuals living in a community. Socioeconomic status can encompass not only income but also the educational attainment, financial security and even the subjective perceptions of the social class and the social status. Studies have also supported that socioeconomic status can also encompass quality of life attributes and even the opportunities and privileges that are afforded by people within the society. Moreover, studies have stated that socioeconomic status is indeed a consistent and a reliable predictor for a vast array of health outcomes across the life spans. This includes both psychological and physical health. Therefore, its impacts on health outcomes need to be analyzed by healthcare professionals so that proper interventions and strategies can be adopted to treat their disorders and poor living conditions.

People from lower socioeconomic classes are seen to be associated with low income, lower educational status as well as poor living conditions, housing and sanitation. These are seen to have negative outcomes on both physical health as well as mental health. People with poor socioeconomic statuscannot afford to complete their higher levels of education and therefore often seen to lack proper healthcare knowledge (Elsayed et al., 2018). Therefore, they adopt healthcare and food habits that affect their health and make them suffer. Higher socioeconomic status is seen to be correlated with better educational achievements and hence better food and health habits (Cundiff et al., 2015). Therefore, improper health outcomes can be associated directly with lower educational qualification and indirectly with lower socioeconomic status.

Socioeconomic status and its correlation with health conditions and quality of life

People with low socio-economic status have lower financial security and lower income. Hence they cannot afford many important components, which are significant for living safe and higher quality life. As they have low income, they are often seen to be capable of buying foods which are inexpensive and  calorie dense. Such foodincrease their chances of being affected by obesity and many other associated disorders like diabetes and others. They cannot afford organic foods that are costlier but health and nutrient rich (Nobel et al., 2017). Hence, low-income issue faced by the low socioeconomic class of people makes them more susceptible to develop various chronic ailments. Studies have found people living with poverty have significantly higher rates of obesity, diabetes, and heart disorders, when compared people of the higher socioeconomic status. Therefore, physical health and well-being is seen to be indirectly associated with socio-economic status of every community in the nation.

 An argument is also present on the aspect of alcohol drinking and tobacco smoking by both the low and socio-economic people. Many of the studies have found out that people with low socio-economic status are more prone to develop substance abuse disorders with increased prevalence of alcohol and tobacco smoking. People suffering from poverty are seen to have poor education levels, low income, and financial security. Therefore, they have lesser prospects that would help them lead a better quality life (Upchurch et al., 2015). Often boredom sets in and people from these classes are seen to succumb to the boredom taking up the habit of drinking and smoking. Often these turninto habits and then into addiction making the individuals suffer from substance abuse disorders. The main argument stated in the other research papers show that socio-economic status is not linked with substance abuse disorders as many people from higher socioeconomic status also develop similar addiction to alcohol and tobacco. However, it can be stated in the counter argument that the prevalence and incidence of the substance abuse cases is higher in people with poverty, low income and low educational attainment. Therefore, substance abuse prevalence rates can also be seen to be related with low socioeconomic status and hence, governmental authorities should consider different types of initiatives and screening systems to control the prevalence of substance abuse successfully.

Poor socioeconomic status of people are also indirectly correlated with poor sanitation and housing conditions. People who suffer from poverty and low income and unemployment do not have financial stability and therefore they cannot afford high quality sanitation as well as proper scientific infrastructures and building (Barr, 2015). They tend to live in one room housing structures that often get overcrowded and hence maintaining hygiene and proper quality life in such overcrowded rooms become difficult. Moreover, the housing that they can afford is not well-built and often seen to have various hygiene issues like damps, moulds, inappropriate sunlight and others. Living in such poor quality houses having poor sanitation exposes them to various forms of infections and communicable disorders. Fungal infection, skin disorders, bacterial disorders, urinary tract infection, mites and many others disorders may take place (Bornstein, 2014). This might result in negative outcomes on health of individuals. In this way, poor socioeconomic status of people are seen to be associated  with access to hygienic and quality housing and this have negative health outcomes.

Impact of low socioeconomic status on education achievement, income, and employment

People belonging to lower socioeconomic status are also seen to live with greater prevalence of depression and anxiety. Lack of proper employment opportunities and poor financial security often tends to develop stress and frustration among the people in the group. Inability to lead a better quality life with proper employment has also made them anxious about the conditions and fate of their families. Therefore, the rate of depression and anxiety issues are also found to be higher among the people belonging to low socio-economic classes and hence they are also seen to go through strenuous days (Farah, 2018). Moreover, due to poor health literacy, they cannot even recognize their symptoms of depression and anxiety and tend to live with the symptoms being undiagnosed. Hence, it becomes important for the social workers and the healthcare departments to establish free screening sessions so that people with such background can participate and identify their vulnerability level of developing the disorders. Following this, proper interventions and counseling session in such communities need to be developed to address such mental health issues successfully.

Another negative experience that people with low socioeconomic background also face is the discrimination as well as stigmatization. They face prejudices in different sphere of life like in the educational centers, in the employment centers and even in the healthcare sectors as well. Inequality towards accessing healthcare services are found to be quite profound in the lives of people belonging the low socioeconomic status (Gonzalez et al., 2016). Disproportionate wealth distribution among the different strata of the socio-economic classes prevents them from affording the healthcare services. They experience lower accessibility to healthcare services as well. Moreover, as they are seen to have poor health literacy level, they also cannot understand the specific types of healthcare services that they need to seek for (Meyer et al., 2014). Hence, poor socioeconomic status is also associated with facing of inequality in the healthcare services as well as issues in accessing proper healthcare services successfully. Therefore, they are often seen to suffer from poor health outcomes that tend to affect the quality of lives in the communities.

From the above discussion, it can be seen that socioeconomic status of people are associated with condition of health. It has successfully established that people belonging to low socio-economic status are also associated with poor educational achievement and even low level of income and unemployment. Therefore, they cannot afford to buy organic nutrient dense foods but can only afford cheap calorie dense foods. This exposes them to develop obesity that becomes the risk factors for many other ailments like diabetes, heart disorders, osteoarthritis and many others. In this way, they indirectly affect the health of the individuals in the communities with low socio-economic background Moreover, they are also seen to have higher rates of substance abuse disorders that enhance them to become vulnerable to lung disorders, different types of cancers, high blood pressure issues and others. Different types of mental health conditions are also found to be common like depression and anxiety. Moreover, the people from this cohort also face inequalities to healthcare services. Hence, policy makers, social health workers, healthcare professionals as well as the governmental departments need to take immediate actions by which they can plan out various schemes and help in ensuring better quality lives for people in this cohort.

References:

Barr, A. B. (2015). Family socioeconomic status, family health, and changes in students’ math achievement across high school: A mediational model. Social Science & Medicine, 140, 27-34.

Bornstein, M. H., & Bradley, R. H. (2014). Socioeconomic status, parenting, and child development. Routledge.

Cundiff, J. M., Uchino, B. N., Smith, T. W., & Birmingham, W. (2015). Socioeconomic status and health: education and income are independent and joint predictors of ambulatory blood pressure. Journal of behavioral medicine, 38(1), 9-16.

Elsayed, G. A., Dupépé, E. B., Erwood, M. S., Davis, M. C., McClugage III, S. G., Szerlip, P., … & Asher, A. L. (2018). Socioeconomic status and health: how education, income, and occupation contribute to risk factors for cardiovascular disease. Journal of Neurosurgery: Spine, 472(1), 1824-1830.

Erreygers, G., & Kessels, R. (2017). Socioeconomic status and health. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 14(673).

Farah, M. J. (2018). Socioeconomic status and the brain: Prospects for neuroscience-informed policy. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 1.

Glymour, M. M., Avendano, M., & Kawachi, I. (2014). Socioeconomic status and health. Social epidemiology, 2, 17-63.

González, M. G., Swanson, D. P., Lynch, M., & Williams, G. C. (2016). Testing satisfaction of basic psychological needs as a mediator of the relationship between socioeconomic status and physical and mental health. Journal of Health Psychology, 21(6), 972-982.

Meyer, O. L., Castro-Schilo, L., & Aguilar-Gaxiola, S. (2014). Determinants of mental health and self-rated health: a model of socioeconomic status, neighborhood safety, and physical activity. American journal of public health, 104(9), 1734-1741.

Nobel, L., Jesdale, W. M., Tjia, J., Waring, M. E., Parish, D. C., Ash, A. S., … & Allison, J. J. (2017). Neighborhood Socioeconomic Status Predicts Health After Hospitalization for Acute Coronary Syndromes. Medical care, 55(12), 1008-1016.

Upchurch, D. M., Stein, J., Greendale, G. A., Chyu, L., Tseng, C. H., Huang, M. H., … & Seeman, T. (2015). A longitudinal investigation of race, socioeconomic status, and psychosocial mediators of allostatic load in midlife women: findings from the Study of Women’s Health Across the Nation. Psychosomatic medicine, 77(4), 402.

Williams, D. R., Priest, N., & Anderson, N. B. (2016). Understanding associations among race, socioeconomic status, and health: Patterns and prospects. Health Psychology, 35(4), 407.