Social inequalities in health Flashcards
What are social inequalities?
When people have unequal access to resources, services and positions in society
What is the social gradient of health?
The idea that health outcomes progressivly worsen with a lower socioeconomic status
These disadvantages are reinforced throughout the lifecourse and become clearer as we age
What is meant by subject social status and why is it important?
SSS - how we think of ourselves and our social status in relationship to others of the same or different social status.
large influence over self efficacy and identity.
E.g proud or sad to be lower class
This influences our mental health outcomes and tendency to identify and behave in certain ways
How does stress vary between the highest and lowest income groups?
Highest income - stressed by behaviour needed to maintain their high social status
Lowest income - stressed by the conditions of their lower social status
What are the regional descepancies in health?
Larger divide in health inbetween different social groups in the NE
Same social status in the NE and SE, SE has better outcomes, thought to be due to subjective social status, identify, cultural factors and resources distribution.
What are the main charactersitics that group people by social inequality?
Social class
Gender
Ethncity
Age
What are the different dimensions of social inequality?
Differences in income
Differences in level of resources
Differences in level of power
Differences in social status (importance in relation to other people)
Differences in social capita (access to different networks of power/people)
What is meant by social class?
Classification of people based on their income, wealth, status and power. Their social and economic status
Those within the same class tend to have the same wealth, education, job type and income
What are the different social classes in britain?
Elite - high levels of all capital
Established middle class - higher economic status and culturally active
New affluent workers - generally young and active, medium economic status and high cultural/social engagement
Technical middle class - less culturally engaged but with an increasing economic status
Emergent service workers - young and in urban areas, low economic but high new cultural anf social status
Traditional working class - often older and poor capita
Precariat - most deprived, unsure in everyday life
What are the different types of capita relating to social status?
Economic capita
Cultural capita - a persons social assest that allow promote higher social class e.g clothes, communication, intellect
Social capita - networks of people
What were the main findings of the black report?
Published in 1980
Showed lower income groups had a greater risk of premature death
Ill health and death are unequally distributed based on inequalties and have widend since the NHS was introduced
Inequalities are not caused by the NHS but social injustice
Recommends stratergies to overcome health inequalities
What are the four different theorectical explanations that link health and inequality?
Artefact explanations
Natural or social selection
Materialistic and structural explanations
Cultural/behavioral explanations.
What are the artefact explanations for why there are health inequalities between different social classes?
‘artificial’ data
Health and class - depend on the way you measure it and how you analyse data, threfore no true link only due to the similarities in how they are defined.
Health inequalities may be explained by reduction of people in the poorest occupational classes, more intermediate.
However - this is not true as the proportion of upper class has not increased by much
What is the natural or social selection explanation of health and social status?
Sees social status as a variable dependent on health
The better the persons health, above that of their peers are more likley to mve up the social class.
This supports the idea of a health inequality between different classes.
However this is undermined by variation in health in the scame social status in different regions
What is the materialistic/ structural explanation behind health inequalities and social status?
The main influence on health is directly or indirectly economic status - causal relationship, health is the dependent variable
This then influences the resources patients have access to such as employment the political and environmental conditions that person lives in. This causes health inequalities
