Session 2: Health Inequalities Flashcards
What is the relationship between health and social class in Britain today?
The higher the socioeconomic position, better health
What is the relationship between health and gender in Britain today?
Women have longer life expectancy
What are some explanations for health inequalities?
- Artifact
- Social selection
- Behavioral-cultural
- Materialist
- Psychosocial
- Income distribution
What is the artifact explanation?
Health inequalities are evident due to the way statistics are collected (concerns about quality of data and method of measurement)
What is the social selection explanation?
Direction of causation is from health to social position
Because of their sickness, they are in their current social position
What is the behavioral-cultural explanation?
Ill health is due to people’s choices, knowledge and goals
What is the materialist explanation?
Inequalities in health arise from differential access to material resources
What is the psychosocial explanation?
Psychological and social state of people leads to poor health, in addition to direct effects of absolute material living standards
What is the income distribution explanation?
Larger income inequality = larger health inequalities
What are the evidences of inequities in access to healthcare?
More deprived groups have:
- higher rates of use of GP and emergency services
- under use of preventive and specialist services
Why is there an inequity in access to healthcare?
- more deprived tend to manage health as a series of crises
- normalization of ill health
- difficulty marshaling resources needed
- lack of cultural alignment