Health Inequalities

Question 1

What are the 7 domains of measuring deprivation of an area?

Answer 1

Income
Employment 
Health and disability 
Education skills and training 
Barriers to housing and services 
Living environment 
Crime

Question 2

Does general health increase or decrease with decreasing socio-economic status?

Answer 2

Decrease

Question 3

What were the 4 explanation headings for why their are inequalities in health according to the Black report?

Answer 3

Artefact
Social selection
Behavioural-cultural
Materialistic

Question 4

Describe the artefact explanation for health inequality

Answer 4

Evident due to the way statistics are collected
Concerns about quality of data and method of measurement
Mostly discredited as an explanation as data problems often actually lead to underestimations of the problem

Question 5

Describe the social selection explanation for health inequality

Answer 5

Direct causation from health to social position
Sick individuals move down social hierarchy, healthy individuals move up
Studies suggest it only makes a minor contribution

Question 6

Describe the behavioural-cultural explanation for health inequality

Answer 6

Ill health is due to people’s choices/decisions/knowledge/goals
People from disadvantaged backgrounds tend to engage in more health damaging behaviours

Question 7

What are the limitations of the behavioural-cultural explanation of inequality

Answer 7

Behaviours are outcomes of social processes not simply choice
Choices may be difficult to exercise in adverse conditions
People may be constrained by lack of resources

Question 8

Describe the materialistic explanation for health inequality

Answer 8

Inequalities arise from differential access to material resources
Lack of choice in exposure to hazards and adverse conditions
Accumulation of factors across life
Most plausible explanation

Question 9

Describe the psychosocial explanation of health inequality

Answer 9

Acts in addition to direct effects of absolute material living standards
Some stressors distributed on a social gradient
Stress impacts on health

Question 10

Describe how income distribution contributes to health inequality

Answer 10

Relative income affects health
Countries with greater income inequalities have greater health inequalities
Need redistributive policies