Understanding inequalities in health and illness

Question 1

What is the biomedical model of health and illness?

Answer 1

• Locates cause of disease in the individual
• Health is a biological process
• Focus on genetics and clinical risk factors
• Highlights risk behaviours and individual behavioural change

Question 2

What is the social model of health and illness?

Answer 2

• Locates cause of disease in the relationship between individual and society
• Health is a social construct
• Focus on social structures and risk factors
• Highlights social change

Question 3

Do we all get an equal choice of life?

Answer 3

Countries with the highest GDPs don’t have the highest life expectancies.

Question 4

What are the UN indicators of poverty and deprivation?

Answer 4

1. dirty water
2. lack of sanitation
3. lack of shelter
4. poor nutrition and insufficient calories
5. lack of essential medical and maternity care
6. no access to education
7. information deprivation

Question 5

What is absolute poverty?

Answer 5

Condition where household income is insufficient to afford basic necessities of life:

• Food
• Shelter
• Clothing

Question 6

What is relative poverty?

Answer 6

Condition where household income is a certain percentage below median income for that country.

Question 7

What is the index of multiple deprivation?

Answer 7

Qualitative study of deprived areas in English local councils

Question 8

What does the EU define relative poverty as?

Answer 8

Relative poverty defined as having a household income < 60% of the national median

Question 9

4 factors that affect life socially?

Answer 9

• Individual
• Human Agency
• Capacity to act independently
• Ability to make choices and impose those choices
• Expression of individual power

-Social Structure

Society is composed of:
• Organised set of institutions
• Patterns of relationships
• (e.g. poverty and housing, education, employment, working conditions)

Class structure- example

“When you go to work in the morning, if your name is on the front of the building, you’re upper class; if your name is on your desk, you’re middle class; and if your name is on your shirt, you’re working class”

Socioeconomic status and health- If you are in a higher socioeconomic classes you are more likely to live longer.