Health Inequalities Flashcards

1
Q

How can you study trends in population health?

A

Epidemiological transition

Infant mortality rate*

Child mortality rate

Life expectancy at birth and healthy life expectancy at birth

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2
Q

What are the leading causes of death in UK for men and women

A

Men: ischaemic heart disease
Women: dementia/AD

Also in top 5: chronic lower respiratory disease, cerebrovascular and lung cancer

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3
Q

What’s the leading cause of cancer death for men and women?

A

Lung cancer

2nd
Men: prostate
Women: breast

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4
Q

What does epidemiological transition study?

A

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)

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5
Q

Define Health inequality

A

Health and illness are not randomly distributed across the population - there are systematic health inequalities across socioeconomic groups

= systematic differences between social groups

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6
Q

What is meant by the social gradient in health?

A

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)

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7
Q

Outline geographic inequalities

A

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

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8
Q

What are the explanatory models for health inequalities?

A

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)

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