Health Inequalities Flashcards
How can you study trends in population health?
Epidemiological transition
Infant mortality rate*
Child mortality rate
Life expectancy at birth and healthy life expectancy at birth
What are the leading causes of death in UK for men and women
Men: ischaemic heart disease
Women: dementia/AD
Also in top 5: chronic lower respiratory disease, cerebrovascular and lung cancer
What’s the leading cause of cancer death for men and women?
Lung cancer
2nd
Men: prostate
Women: breast
What does epidemiological transition study?
Social and economic development
Transition in the demographic and disease profile
Deaths from acute infections and deficiency diseases (declining)
Deaths from chronic and non-communicable diseases (increasing)
Define Health inequality
Health and illness are not randomly distributed across the population - there are systematic health inequalities across socioeconomic groups
= systematic differences between social groups
What is meant by the social gradient in health?
Differences in social groups aren’t explained by health behaviours alone, but are influenced by social factors: socioeconomic circumstances, education, gender, culture & ethnicity
As you move down the socioeconomic ladder, health becomes poorer (stepwise gradient in health so mortality and morbidity rates increase)
Outline geographic inequalities
Variations in health between regions and neighbourhoods - morbidity and mortality rates higher in north and west and in urban areas
There can be differences within areas eg life expectancy at birth differs throughout different areas of Coventry
What are the explanatory models for health inequalities?
Behavioural and cultural model = health inequalities arise from variations in health behaviours and lifestyles (smoking, diet, exercise) as health behaviours follow the social gradient
Social inequality: health inequalities arise from differences between socioeconomic groups
Material model = lower socioeconomic status associated with poorer access to material health resources
Psychosocial model = psychosocial stress directly affects physical health and indirectly influences health behaviours (plus lower socioeconomic groups experience more stress)