Introduction

Question 1

What are the two factors determining health inequalities?

Answer 1

Compositional (characteristics of the population)

• programming – bad genes/parents
• behavioural – bad choices
• social/community – bad people
• material deprivation – bad living conditions
• environmental – bad surroundings

Contextual (characteristics of place)

Question 2

Why drawbacks do both factors determining health inequalities have?

Answer 2

Compositional factors create and contribute health differences across places, but don’t always cause them
Places influence health, but health also influences place identity

Question 3

Why is wellbeing unequal across space?

Answer 3

Age structure, socio-economic/occupational structure, ethnicity structure (composition)
(context) – something about the place also taking effect – environmental effects (pollution/climate change, access to healthcare and resources, living in rural/urbanized areas)

Question 4

Give an example of wellbeing differences and what comp and context factors are at play?

Answer 4

Context vs Composition – north, south divide
Life expectancy across regions in UK – north is lower – district and social class

Characteristics (composition) in north vs. south – higher alcohol use, higher proportion of drinkers
Contextual – lack of jobs/major of jobs (higher manual labour) occupational structure – characteristics associated with more industrial landscape that influence people’s health negatively