Health Inequalities

Question 1

How can you study trends in population health?

Answer 1

Epidemiological transition

Infant mortality rate*

Child mortality rate

Life expectancy at birth and healthy life expectancy at birth

Question 2

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

Answer 2

Men: ischaemic heart disease
Women: dementia/AD

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

Question 3

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

Answer 3

Lung cancer

2nd
Men: prostate
Women: breast

Question 4

What does epidemiological transition study?

Answer 4

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)

Question 5

Define Health inequality

Answer 5

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

= systematic differences between social groups

Question 6

What is meant by the social gradient in health?

Answer 6

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)

Question 7

Outline geographic inequalities

Answer 7

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

Question 8

What are the explanatory models for health inequalities?

Answer 8

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)