3. Inequalities in Health Flashcards
What is a social class?
A segment of the population distinguished from others by similarities in labour market position and property relations.
How is socioeconomic status measured/classified?
Individual - registrate general scheme, national statistic socio-economic classification.
Area-based - Townsend deprivations core.
Education - years/level reached.
Incomes - household.
What is the Townsend deprivation score?
Data from census that considers four variables: unemployment, car ownership, overcrowded housing, housing tenure.
What are the limitations of the Townsend deprivation score?
Heterogeneity and transient populations.
How does socioeconomic status affect health?
Less deprived populations have higher life expectancy and higher disability-free life expectancies. Age standardised mortality rates are higher in lower socioeconomic groups.
What is ethnicity?
The identification with a social group on the basis of shared values, beliefs, customs, traditions, language, and lifestyles.
How does ethnicity affect cardiovascular disease?
Highest prevalence in men of South African origin.
How is cancer affected by ethnicity?
Lower prevalence in Black Minority Ethnic (BME) groups.
How is infant mortality affected by ethnicity?
Higher rates in women of Pakistani and Black Caribbean origin.
How is mental health affected by ethnicity?
People from BME are less likely to be diagnosed with mental illness but highest reported poor mental health is in women of Pakistani and Black Caribbean origin.
What are the differences in health according to gender?
Males have higher mortality rates and more suicide and violent deaths.
Women have higher life expectancy but higher reported mental health and rates of disability.
What is the Black Report?
Report from department of health in 1980 that gave four theories for why health inequalities occur.
What are the four theories from the Black Report?
Artefact explanation, social selection explanation, behavioural-cultural explanation, and materialist explanation.
What is the artefact explanation for inequality?
Health inequalities are evident due to the way statistics are collected. It is concerned with quality of data and method of measurement.
Why is the artefact explanation for inequality generally discredited?
More likely data collection leads to under-estimation of inequality rather than over-estimation.
What is the social selection explanation for inequality?
Causation is from health to social position so sick individuals move down social hierarchy and healthy individuals move up hierarchy.
What is the general view about the social selection explanation for inequality?
It is only a minor contribution to inequality but is plausible.
What is the behavioural-cultural explanation for inequality?
Ill health is due to people’s choices/decisions, knowledge, and goals. So people from disadvantages backgrounds tend to engage in health-damaging behaviours and vice versa.
What are the limitations with the behavioural-cultural explanation for inequality?
Behaviours are outcomes of social process, not just individual choice; choice is difficult to exercise in adverse conditions; choices may be ration if life is constrained by lack of resources.
What is the materialistic explanation for inequality?
Inequalities in health arise from differential access to material resources, lack of choice in exposure to hazards, and accumulation of factors across life-course.
What are the limitations of the materialistic explanation for inequality?
Further research is needed for how this precisely happens.
What was the conclusion of the Black Report?
The materialistic explanation was the most powerful although there is some merit in the other explanations.
What is the psychosocial perspective towards health inequality?
Psychosocial pathways associated with disadvantage act in addition to direct effects of absolute material living standards.
What is the effect of income distribution on health?
Relative income affects health. Countries with greater income inequalities have greater health inequalities. So social cohesion is important in health.