FQ1: Why do inequities exist in the health of Australians? Flashcards
What are the factors that create health inequities?
- Daily living conditions
- Quality of early years of life
- Access to services and transport
- Socioeconomic factors
- Social attributes, e.g. social exclusion, discrimination
- Government policies and priorities, e.g. health, economic, social
Explain how poor living conditions poorly impact health. Refer to some priority groups.
- Greater risk of contracting + spreading communicable diseases
- If living with large/extended family in one home → cycle of ill health can be developed: Individuals are continually reinfected
- Some Indigenous people in remote areas: improvised dwellings (e.g. sheds, humpies)
- Ability to maintain adequate level of hygiene to prevent spread of disease is difficult
SES: overcrowded
- Increases possibility of stress-related illness
- Greater potential for domestic violence or abuse
- cannot afford adequate insulation/safe heating - victims of injury/deaths related to burns
SES + elderly:
- renting or occupying houses that are older + run down
- Higher incidence of respiratory diseases - especially asthma
- Need costly maintenance of items - e.g. plumbing
What factors influence the quality of early years of life?
- Genetic and environmental factors
- SES
- Sociocultural (SC)
Explain how different factors influence the quality of early years of life.
- GENETIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS
- Combination of genetic material from each parent may increase child’s risk of developing a genetic disease or decrease the risk for diseases = protective or risk factor
E.g. diabetes, skin cancer
- Mother can pass on effects of drug use and other lifestyle behaviours e.g. FASD from alcohol, low birth weight from smoking
- Greater risk of developing respiratory illnesses e.g. asthma
- Being exposed to toxic chemicals: develop into cancer, allergic reaction
- Air quality
- Noise pollution
- Safe water supply - SES
Parents on higher incomes:
- Afford private health insurance → easier access to diagnostic testing + treatment for young children experiencing ill health
- Greater opportunity + choice of housing/areas to live in
- Able to afford nutritious food - influences development of child
- Easy access to GPs + variety of health services to choose from + range of specialists to deal with serious health issues
Parents with low SES:
- Unaware of problems with child’s development - only picked up through routine screening programs (at schools, baby health centres)
- More common to not immunise children for infectious diseases (e.g. whooping cough) → spread through community → delay development of other young children
- Sociocultural (SC)
Some cultures: strong family support structures
- Older relatives and siblings take care of young
- Both parents are working
Some families cannot provide this level of support
- Infants may spend more time with friends - daycare
- Different nurturing experiences
Attitudes towards + access to education= Determines level of health literacy
- Future opportunity for training and employment
- Regular attendance at school: ongoing challenge in Indigenous communities (+ rural and remote communities)
List factors that would enhance quality of life.
Private healthcare
Nutrition
Disposable income
Education
Technology
Extra curricular activities
Clothes
Stable income
Postcode
Attendance at school - impacted by access to services/transport, socioeconomic status
Explain how access to services and transport impact health inequities.
Access to services varies across the country
- Remote and rural areas - fever GPs, dentists, have to travel hundreds of kilometres to access specialist treatment
- Low SES and elderly - difficulty accessing necessary transport to get them to various medical services
- Impacts school attendance
- Migrants cannot find doctors who speak their language + culturally sensitive to needs (Indigenous people - reluctance to seek ‘traditional white medicine’ from past distrust + language barriers)
- Those without health insurance: Go on waiting lists for public hospital treatment → access to health services is delayed, Low SES + disability → double disadvantage in achieving good health
What impacts access to services/transport
- Natural disaster
- Rural and remote areas - can have a minibus service that goes through homes and takes them to school (Some bus drivers do not want to drive in certain areas - crime, abuse, lack of respect)
- Strike - industrial action
What factors influence socioeconomic factors?
- Occupation
- Access to and level of education
Contrast between the attitudes taken up by low SES and high SES population groups.
LOW SES:
- More likely to use a primary or secondary health facility - doctor or hospital, rather than preventative health service (immunisation, dental checkups or breast screening)
- Caught in poverty traps caused by generations of unemployment (attitudes passed down, poor role models)
- Tend to adopt unhealthy behaviours → higher mortality and morbidity rates (e.g. smoking, alcohol, high fat, sedentary)
- Relatively low income = poor diet, less able to buy medicine
- Long periods of unemployment or job insecurity
- Poor mental health
- Higher incidence of disability and serious chronic illnesses
- LE is 2.6 years lower than high SES
HIGH SES:
- More likely to be able to afford private health insurance
- Wait shorter periods for treatment
- Access to elective preventative health procedures
- More likely to listen to HP messages + act upon them
(Reflects higher education levels + HL levels)
- Place of residence also usually promotes health rather than making it deteriorate (fewer takeaway food outlets + more access to footpaths, parklands and other sporting and recreation facilities)
Explain how occupation influences socioeconomic factors on health inequities.
General office work
- Stress
- Exposure to radiation
- Repetitive strain injury
- All can reduce QoL by debilitating physical conditions
Workers who use heavy machinery or involved in transport industry
- Greater risk of injury leading to disability/death
- Especially those in rural and remote areas
Industrial processes - risk of developing cancers through chemical contamination + respiratory dysfunction from inhaling vapours
- More likely to affect males - tend to take jobs with higher physical risk than females
- Migrants, workers on low incomes, youth → more likely to take risks at work to maintain employment
Explain how education influences socioeconomic factors on health inequities.
Edu level generally determines level of income, SES and health
- More time spent in edu = greater potential to develop good level of HL
- Young people who leave school early + remain unemployed = Greater risk of developing poor mental health and depression, Self-harm behaviours, Likely that SES will be low throughout life
- Migrants from NESB = Difficulty of learning a new language, May not fully understand HP messages contained in health lessons + media, Should receive HL presented in their own language
- ATSI = Less likely to have post-school qualifications, As a group - tend to leave school at an early age
- Rural and remote: traditional school may seem culturally inappropriate = Indigenous languages and customs are not taught as part of all school curriculums
- Some ATSI and migrant communities are developing their own schools = Growth in independent schools has the benefit of promoting the customs of particular cultures = May encourage better attendance rate by students who might otherwise drop out of mainstream schools
What factors influence social attributes?
- Social exclusion
- Discrimination
Explain how social exclusion influences social attributes on health inequities.
Social exclusion → segregation that people experience if they are not adequately participating in the society in which they live
- Unable to access: Education, Employment, Housing, Healthcare, Social security services opportunities
- If it endures for a long period of time → expose generations to lifetime of ill health
- do not have proper political representation
- Societies → need to work together to make all subgroups feel valued + supported (Young people, disabled, elderly, ethnic groups)
Explain how discrimination influences social attributes on health inequities.
Discrimination → unfair treatment of a person/group based on factors such as: sex, race, culture, age, disability
- Being part of group continuously discriminated → poorer health outcomes
- Media’s narrow stereotyping of women - obsessed with body image → higher prevalence of eating disorders among women
Individuals living with a disability
- Require medication + continual treatment to relieve their condition - some covered by Medicare (not all)
- Depending on disability - may be financially dependent on a pension → limits income → low standard of living/QoL
E.g. womens’ wages are lower → delay treatment for financial reasons
E.g. women’s sport receives less media attention → negative impact on younger females
Explain how government policies and priorities influence health inequities.
Federal and state governments are responsible to prioritising health care + allocating funds to general health areas + specific population groups
- National health priority areas receive a higher level of funding
- Cost of healthcare is always increasing
Introduction of LHC (Lifetime Health Cover) - designed to ease the burden on public healthcare system by encouraging people to take out hospital insurance earlier in life
- Risk: policy may achieve an improvement in health only for those who can afford it
ATSI: 2-3 times worse than non-ATSI people
- Exposure to violence, drug taking, abuse and STIs can have lifelong health consequences
- Receive only marginally higher funding
- Government economic and social policies of the past - did not allow ATSI people to determine their own affairs - contributes to ill health
- mandatory sentencing laws in Northern Territory (1997) = discrimination, emotional suffering
