Lecture 19. Understanding SEP, causes of the causes Flashcards
Socio-economic position
“The social and economic factors that influence what positions individuals or groups hold within the structure of a society”
The determinants must be objective, measurable, and meaningful
Reasons for measuring SEP
Measures of SEP
– are used to quantify the level of inequality within or between societies
– May highlight changes to population structures over
time, between Census periods, or even between
generations!
– Are needed to help understand the relationship
between health and other social variables (age, sex,
ethnicity)
– Have been associated with health and life chances
for as long as social groups have existed
Measuring SEP for individuals
- Education
- Income
- Occupation
- Housing
- Assets and wealth
Measuring SEP for populations
• Area measures
– Deprivation
– Access( to resources, services, options)
• Population measures(ecological studies)
– Income inequality
– Literacy rates
– Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita
SEP on Dahglren & Whitehead model
• Individual lifestyle factors
– YOUR education, occupation, income
– You and the decisions you make, influence your
opportunities
• Social and Community influences
– Your PARENT’s education, occupation, income
– Commonly used to measure SEP in studies of children & adolescents
– Some evidence that your parent’s SEP is associated with your own SEP
• Living and working conditions
– Use area-based measures of SEP
- Most common in New Zealand is the NZ Index of
Deprivation (NZDep)
- Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) which allows you to drill down to explore the drivers of area deprivation
– Other measures include social fragmentation and accessibility indices
• General Socioeconomic, cultural and
environmental conditions
– Group populations with similar SEP levels together
– Cross-sectional or longitudinal analyses
– The New Zealand Census Mortality Study
– Using the Integrated Data Infrastructure(IDI)
• Global determinants( not really used on Dahlgren & whitehead model) – Income inequality – National income -GDP – Literacy Rates – Free trade agreements
What is the main difference/benefit of measuring area-level deprivation(as a measure of SEP) over education, income, housing etc
People are more willing to provide information on where they live as opposed to what their income is(more personal)
easier to measure what people don’t have rather than how much
Area-level deprivation
A different measure of SEP
ranks areas from highest to lowest deprivation
• Another way of measuring people’s RELATIVE position in society, but reports this based on where they live, not who the people themselves
• Measures focus on material deprivation
– Refers to what residents living in particular areas “don’t have”
• Deprivation should be applied to conditions and quality of life that are
of a lower standard than is ordinary in a particular society( eurocentric)
-NOT talking about poverty
what is living in poverty
Living in poverty refers to a lack of income and resources to obtain
the normative standard of living.
Equivalisation
methods used to control for household composition(density)
NZDep2013
9 dimensions of deprivation
NZDep2013 divides small census areas into deciles (10 groups) or quintiles (5 groups)
The Preston curve
a graph linking country GDP to life expectancy.
Sharp rise in life expectancy with GDP increase in very poor countries
Saturation is reached( Increases in GDP do not affect the life expectancy anymore)
reasons for differences in COVID-19 burden amongst levels of deprivation
- Are the determinants equally distributed?
- Who can access health care when they need it?
- Which groups are less likely to have adequate space in their home to self-isolate if necessary?
- Who are our essential works?
- Who can afford a week’s food?
