Social Inequality and Public Health
Social Inequality and Public Health
Institution
Public health in the 21st-century experiences many social inequalities that have an impact on the individual health across the globe. The concept of public health is identified by political, social and economic factors that determine the level of health and the implication of individual behaviours as well as social groups. Most communities are affected by inequalities that exist in health, affecting service delivery and achieving better outcomes in healthcare. The article “Project to Improve Poor Children’s Intellect Led to Better Health, Data Show” by Tavernise explores the inequalities that exist between families and how they affect health and also explores on the appropriate interventions to bridge the gap that exists among families. The article is based on research conducted among two children, from a well-off family that can afford full-time care for the baby at the age of five and a baby from a low-income family that can’t provide full-time daycare for the child up to five years (Tavernise, 2014). The disparities that exist between the two families reveals the variation in health outcomes among the two babies as one can afford basic meals, stimulating activities and games during growing.
Sabrina central argument regards the implication of social inequalities toward achieving a healthier population. Also, the study argument is based on scientific evidence which explores hardships of children during early stages and how it has implications on health outcomes. Further, Sabrina provides arguments that outlines the challenges which people face when seeking medical services which depend on their ability to pay for the services. However, the keynote addressed by Sabrina regards how various policies can be put into place to prevent the disparities that exist from the health sector. Sabrina base his arguments in reference to James Heckman who says “This tells us that adversity matters and it does affect adult health, but it also shows us that we can do something about it, that poverty is not just a hopeless condition.” this implies that adversity has a great implication when it comes to healthcare delivery among the adult population in a country as poverty plays a key role in determining the efficiency of health care delivery in a country (Tavernise, 2014). Further, Sabrina base his arguments on President Obama’s political contribution in improving healthcare among the population.
The concept of social inequality greatly connects to the topic in various ways. First, the inequality in the distribution of economic and wealth affects health outcomes. People from low-income can’t afford to pay for basic health care and this call for the intervention of government in the establishment of various policies that helps in addressing the gaps in health delivery. The people from low-income regions can’t afford to pay for medical insurance covers. Thus they can’t access services that require a huge amount of money.
On the contrary, the high-income earners can afford to pay for medical insurance coverage and thus they can afford to get treatment in the best medical facilities. This aspect reveals the implication of social inequalities towards health delivery. In bridging the social gap that exists between the low-income earners and high-income earners, it has necessitated for the establishment of various policies to act as appropriate interventions. The Obama administration introduced the Obama Care Act as a program to achieve universal healthcare among the American population. The program acted as an appropriate intervention to address the disparities that exist in healthcare as the program provided comprehensive health coverage among the people (Babones, 2009). Sabrina study is supplemented by studies in science that draws the data from various projects exploring the subject of healthcare. According to the Carolina Abecedarian project, it indicates that more than 100 children from low-income families have challenges in accessing healthcare services and this affected their cognitive development. The social inequalities affect the emotional and social aspects which imply better health among children.
The article explores the aspect of social inequalities in a broader concept and finding the linkages that exist between inequalities and health outcomes in a country. The social inequalities have been connected to increase in cases of lifestyle diseases such as cholesterol, hypertension, and metabolic syndrome as well as other health risk factors that lead to adverse implication on the health of people such as diabetes, stroke and heart disease. The article connects to Dr Campbell who regards biological makers, physical tests and blood tests as things that makes story interesting when it comes to health outcomes. The social inequalities affect the healthy habits of people where low-income earners who can’t afford a balanced lifestyle are greatly affected by lifestyle diseases such as obesity and pre-hypertension due to insufficient care. In many cases, the programs towards healthy lifestyle tend to be much expensive for people with low income and this cause an increase in disparities in health. The article further discusses the implications of social inequalities as they contribute to disparities in health. Thus, a healthy population can be achieved when the government establishes programs as a method of intervention among different social classes of people.
References
Babones, S. J. (Ed.). (2009). Social inequality and public health. Policy Press.
Tavernise, S. (2014). Project to improve poor children’s intellect led to better health, Data Show.
