Health inequalities refer to the health outcome based on the systemic differences between other groups or populations within a country or region. Health inequality is none but the distribution of the different resources that differed between people of different bases as such born, growth, life, working sector, and variable ages. Health inequalities are shown in other groups the focus points of the groups are socioeconomic and ethnic groups. Health inequalities are a problem, not the UK but also all over the world, and for that, the mortality rates in increasing always. Based on different topics and points the inequalities are to be discussed briefly to develop such strategies so that these problems can be under the spotlight to have actions to stop these for the sake of saving lives. The development plans need to e based on the policies provided by the government of the country to stop these practices, which can be a great threat to the livelihood.
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Aims and Objectives of the Health Inequalities in the UK
Aims
The process tostop the practices such as health inequalities for the sake of life saving or to decrease the mortality rates from the different groups of the UK.
Objectives
to analyze the current health inequalities present in the UK
to identify the factors causing increasing health inequalities in the UK among different groups
to find the existing policies and programs to reduce health inequalities
To suggest policies to reduce health inequalities.
Constituents of health inequalities
Health inequality refers to the disparity in the health status of the people. This approach offers how people receive opportunities to lead a healthy life. Health inequalities constitute access to health care, quality and experience care, border determinants of health, various and others. behavioral risk.(Horton, et al.,2021) Health inequalities possess mental ill-health, the long terms health conditions, and the effects of Covid 19 impact. Health inequalities in life expectancy are one of the important directions of population health which is related to the socioeconomic group. Geographical location is also responsible for health inequalities. LONG term health condition is one of the important poor quality of life. Mentally ill people often fail to get health inequalities. Health inequalities are also increased by proper access.(Mikolai, et al., 2020) Several determinant factors are responsible for health inequalities. They are maybe environmental factors, education, and access to green space. Several determinants of health inequalities are income, transport, environment, work, gender, and ethnicity. The low-income group is not aware of their health status. They are often seen as very casual in making health equalities. It has been found that children from low-income groups are likely to have more mental illnesses than others. People who reside in more crowded areas and possess poor housing are often suffering from cardiovascular risk, anxiety, and depression. However, people exposed to the more polluted areas are associated with mental and physical illness. A study found that air pollutants take 28000-36000 lives in a year in the UK. About 50% of the people in inaccessible areas are more prone to face road accidents. They are often injured on the road while traveling. Different occupational hazards are often responsible for health inequalities. (Ben-Joseph et al.,2020) Job security is one of the important hazards for health inequalities. Various factors including access to health care services, quality of health care services, and poor income are common factors for health inequalities. It has been found that poor people often get fewer opportunities for better services and care. Moreover, they often get neglected by health organizations. (Fleming, et al.,2021)During the pandemic situation health inequalities increased by 2.6% higher than in past years. Some groups are affected by imparting restrictions on healthcare services and this situation increases the risk for some groups of people in getting healthcare services.
Manifestation of health inequalities in people of the UK
A different study in England found that there are increasing health inequalities among the people residing in England. Various studies revealed that people age 60 years old living in the poorest are more likely to suffer from illness than people living in the wealthiest areas of about age 70 years old. (Fullagar, 2019. )Hospitals and primary care data diagnosed various diseases such as anxiety, depression, chronic pain, regional and ethnic, and mental illness. Manifestations are often seen as gender. For example, women are getting more susceptible to being infected than men. Life expectancy is shorter in people residing in outskirt areas than in people residing in the wealthiest areas. Children from low socio-economic group often get addicted to alcohol.“Inverse Care Law” assess that poor quality rates are deprived of quality health care services more than the richest areas. (Kneale et al.,2021) The different studies aimed to investigate the gap and target those people who suffer the most. Data was taken over the past 10 years to observe the manifestation of health inequalities. Health inequalities can be achieved by imparting care to various people who are suffering from opportunities."Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) data" are taken into consideration to analyze the manifestation of health inequalities in the UK. Socioeconomic group, gender, and geographical location measure health inequalities.
Health inequalities are getting increased in the UK. several studies found that health equality is more in the poorest areas than in the wealthiest areas. (Westwood et al.,2020) . There is a broad disparity in different socioeconomic groups. It has been also found that health inequalities are increased in certain diseases such as diabetes, COPD, cardiovascular diseases, alcohol problems, and others. In their late teens ages people who are getting addicted to alcohol often face health inequalities. (Niedzwiedz, et al.,2020) A geographical location like the north-south area needs more health care than others as they easily get infected due to climate change, whereas the northeast area requires the least health care services. COPD, cardiovascular diseases, and anxiety contribute to 60% disease burden. Inequalities are evident in the case of cancer. Long-term illness increases health inequality in more than 30 years older people.(Oreffice, and Quintana-Domeque, 2021) Children living in more deprived areas are getting infected by asthma, anxiety, depression, and epilepsy. A different study revealed that health inequalities started from an early age to older ages. A survey reveals that the life expectancy of the least deprived people is 87.1 in men whereas 88.8 in females according to IMD decline. Life expectancy increases to about 9 years from 2011 to 2013 and 9.4 years from 2017-2019. On the other hand, 6.9 to 7.6 years increased for females. (Jaffe, et al.,2020) It has been found that people die 2.2 times higher from cancer than those residing in the least deprived areas. Children's deprivation rate was 3.2 times higher in the least deprived areas than in others areas. Children's obesity increased in England by 16.2% in England. From the current studies, it can be concluded that 75% of mortality is due to cardiovascular diseases, and cancers in the UK.
In addition, the US people suffer most from health inequalities. It has been found that black women suffer 47% more health inequalities than in any other country. In USA black Californians are the most deprived group of people so they face inequality to a great extent. (Bambra, et al.,2020) On the other hand life expectancy decreases to about 10-25% due to low education levels. (Homan, P., 2019) For women, the life expectancy gap is 5.5 at the age of 25 years whereas it increases by 4.7 % at the age of 45 years. Education-related life expectancy increases in Australia more than in any other country. Public health issues reveal 170 possible health inequalities factors in Nordic countries.(Zaninotto, et al., 2020) Especially Covid 19 situation increases social health inequalities in Nordic countries. Life expectancy increases in females up to 82 years in Nordic countries.
"National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey" revealed surveys for England and UK both. It has been found that health inequalities in USA and UK are due to low income. On the contrary, several universal health insurance policies are applied to decrease health-related inequalities. On the other hand, higher rates of mental illness increase racism and discrimination in social areas, which in turn increases health-related inequalities. It has been also found that about 80%b of the people are not having a house so they invest more in housing rather than in health insurance (Coronini-Cronberg et al.,2020). "Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey" reveals that psychotic disorder increases by 3.2% in black men and Asian men whereas this rate is only 0.3% in white men.
Health inequalities in low socio-economic groups
A comprehensive strategy for healthiness emphasizes its intimate association with "social and economic" conditions, and separates, lifestyles from the "physical environment". According to the "Commission on Social Determinants of Health", can be assumed that "health-related inequalities" are the effect of accumulative result of the manifestation of health hazards of those people who resides in socioeconomically deprived areas. People in the southern countries are coming from low economic groups than northern countries.(Dieker, et al.,2019) It has been found that income inequality has a damaging impact on health-related inequality in a population. Poor socioeconomic people, mostly old age rate suffered in health equalities to a great extent than people of younger age. In addition, old age people need more health attention than others. There are several social determinants for health inequalities such as poverty, less education, least access to health care, and racism. Poor people are unaware of having any health insurance and are often deprived of health care services. Poverty may arise due to educational insufficiency, family trauma, or from the neighborhood. Poverty makes people less aware of having health facilities. People are getting stressed due to severe economical issues. In that case, surviving in the population is the major decision over any health-related issues.(Anderson, et al.,2020) Education qualification has a great role in health-related inequality.
More educated people are aware of their health so they take different health policies whereas less educated people have no idea that they could take healthy policies for better treatment in super specialty hospitals. People residing in extreme areas have less accessibility to better health services. They are deprived of getting intensive care from the healthcare sector. Poor socioeconomic groups are associated with different comorbidities such as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, anxiety, nerve-related disorder, alcohol consumption, and mental illness. A poor economy contributes more to mental illness than others whereas the richest people are less likely to get mental illness. It has been found that children coming from low economic groups easily get addicted to alcohol, drug, and smoking which increases disparity in health care services in a society (Wachtler et al.,2020). Racism is a major contributing factor to health inequalities. Poor people are getting fewer opportunities than others whereas the richest people are so aware of getting opportunities in health sectors.
Reasons for inequalities
There are several reasons for health inequalities, Health inequalities are due to environment, gender, poverty, education, and geographical location. The root cause of health inequality has two dimensions. The first dimension is associated with interpersonal institutions and their systemic mechanisms (McCartneyet al.,2019). This domain arranged major distributing factors and sources such as gender 4expression, sexual orientation, and class in identified groups. Whereas the second dimension is concerned with the unequal distribution of power and resources such as social attention, services, and goods to a selected group of people. The measurements of sociable individuality and region that collect or “design” for entry to possibilities for health. They are gender, "employment ", "race and ethnicity", "disability and immigration status", "geography" and "socioeconomic status". "Structural inequalities" are coming from "classicisms", "xenophobia", "homophobia", "and racism". Multiple socioeconomic determinants such as people living in poor conditions such as better accessibility to food, water, transport, and school are responsible for health inequalities. (Bambraet al.,2021). Better quality schools and neighborhoods give shape to the people residing in society. Childhood experiences and class differences often suffer from trauma and stress which will affect their learning ability among the students.
Different environmental threats due to natural calamities are responsible for health inequalities. Disadvantageous Socioeconomic groups coming from urban areas face different inequalities. (Hamal et al.,2020) They have to store food for several days due to the distance from the market which means they are not getting fresh food in their diet which may cause nutritional deficiency. Health becomes less accessible in highly populated areas where the number of patients increased. People coming from low socio-economic group are not received equal attention from doctors, nurses, physicians, and others. However, Intensive care is still required for poor people."Black or Hispanic people" are often rejected to receive health insurance. (Bauer, and Scheim, 2019)Premature mortality, chronic diseases, and communicable diseases are very common in cases low economic groups of people.
Theories related to the Health Inequalities
"A professor of Medical Sociology at University College London, Mel Bartley," wrote a book with a chapter on "What is health inequality?" From the Black Report of 1980 in the UK it has been found that health inequalities and policies are important agendas at the institutional level. In this book magnitude of health, inequalities are discussed (McCartney et al., 2019). Various theories classified health inequalities according to behavior, psycho-social, and generic. Later this theory draws attention to different issues that arise from socioeconomic cultures. Different behavioral aspects are also explained by this theory. (Heard, et al., 2020)Various theories related to health inequalities are artefact theory, selection theory, cultural and behavioral theory, and structural theory.
Public health approaches on health inequalities
Public health leader seeks attention from the social community to decrease health inequalities. The "Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)" is devoted to reaching gains in people's life by decreasing "health inequities." Different awareness programs, research, and different policies are taken into account to draw attention to inequalities. Public health assesses the various factors that are responsible for inequalities. Various interventions are taken into account to reduce the inequalities in health a sector, many organizations initiates various health insurance at very low cost for people coming from low socio-economic group. Several benefits have been given to that insurance policies so that they could easily be attracted, poor economic people. Health policies should be provided at a very low cost with more beneficial services. Poverty is one of the factors in health inequalities, so economic status should be taken into account while making health insurance policies. The public sector also focuses on environmental issues to reduce inequalities such as they provide a certain budget to build houses. (Schulz, et al.,2020)They also provide more access to better food and water supply to improve the quality of life for low socioeconomic groups of people. However, they provide major economical budgets to enhance equality in health sectors. They also arranged several awareness programs related to health issues to decrease health inequality. Public health emphasizes behavioral aspects to get rid of several malpractices such as smoking, and consuming alcohol. The government takes several missions to improve the transport system from the urban areas to cities so that they can get more access to health care services and accessibility.
Strategies of reduces health inequalities
The socioeconomic strategies are based on some factors that need proper improvement so that the effect can reflect positive impacts on health to reduce health inequalities that can further help to decrease the death rates and increase the survival rates. the Socioeconomic structures are based on the income of a person, educational qualification, scope of employment, background of a community, safety factors, and the backbone support socially (Abedi. et al. 2021). The different chances with different factors are the reason for the health inequalities. If there is a good and general practice of employment and the recruitment process is fair and justified with the applied work environment then more people will have the scope to have jobs and that leads to financial support, which is needed during health issues and others (Bambra et al. 2019). Educational qualification is also a great factor that can be mentioned as a key factor to be improved if more people are having a proper base and growth of education then it will increase the chances of employment and financial support ( Longo, et al.,2023). If more peopleis having a piece of proper knowledge or a view pointy then it will also make the people sincere in protecting themselves to catch health issues easily. Employment of a large number of people can also be a good sign of a developing strategy to reduce health inequality (nhs.2023). If a whole community is in a practice that is against the improvement of social behavior then it will increase the rate of health issues. if there are conscious people in a country in the health sectors then that will be a beneficiary factor for the growth of health (Bambra et al. 2019).
One of the major issues can be identified as more greenery or more plantations of trees, which will increase the chances of cleaning the air quality and decrease the pollution level, which can be good for the growing health of all living creatures of the world. Less use of bio-no degradable substances will also help to increase health (Razai et al. 2021). Pollutants that are life-threatening need to be stopped for a qualitative environment to have. Supportive nature and social factors are the backbone of a community's growth and can be a factor to reduce health inequalities. If a place in such an area there are insufficient natural sources present in the location that also can be a negative factor for the overall growth of the country. A country should have well a clean environment then it can be a great unit to reduce health inequalities (Cookson et al. 2021). Health inequalities are also dependent on geographical factors such as the UK's population.
There is less presence of greenery in the center of the country, which is not also a good factor for the improvement of health issues hence to reduce health inequalities greenery is need to be increased. Harmful practices such as irregular lifestyle, intake of fast-food habits, and less fitness for sound physic also increase the rate of health issues (de la Rie et al., 2023). For having good health, one must need to have good practices where there is sufficient food intake and less intake of fast food with regular sleeping habits that can improve health (Iacobucci, 2023). “A sound mind in a sound body" if a person is not physically fit thenthe chances for deterioration of health is in a rising graphical representation. Unplanned processes after marriage and age problems need to resolve to have good health.
Different national and sub-national approaches to healthy equality
Policies that are taken by the UK government to reduce health inequalities are – the reduction of excessive smoking habits and the variability in diet plans and not having sufficient healthy food but intake of fast food are the cause of obesity and further health inequality hence the rule provided by the UK government no one is allowed to smoke in an enclosed area, during the presence in the working sectors and on the traveling in public transport (Gov. 2023). Working service should be active for all social service providers whenever someone needs it, to be active and fit to reduce the health inequality graph (Gov. 2023). Full-time education is essential and under the laws to provide, it to all children is compulsory up to the age of 5 to 16 by schooling. Social networking laws are there to get interact with more people and the law is always under development to decide the new rules that need to moderate (Gov. 2023). Policies under control to access the methods and mechanisms can be permitted or accessible to the users to access data that is available, needed information, and required systems to use (Gov. 2023).
Conclusion
This report discusses the various factors responsible for health inequalities such as socioeconomic factors, poverty, environmental factors, education, gender, class, and racism. This report also entails a comparative analysis of healthy inequalities among different countries such as Australia, the USA, and Scandinavia. It can be concluded that poor income is one of the major socioeconomic contributing factors to health inequalities. Children suffering from low socioeconomic groups always suffer from inequalities in health. It has been found that inequalities in society impart a negative effect on children's minds. It can be concluded that poor socio-economic factors rises inequalities not only in health sectors but also in many areas. The public health sector took some measures such as the initiation of an awareness program regarding health insurance. This can remove the social disparity among the various socio-economic group. Those children who are coming from low economic backgrounds are often exposed to social inequality that should be removed from their minds. Proper education can remove this kind of disparity from their minds and make them more aware of health insurance policies. However, it also found that people who live in urban areas are likely to get less access to health inequalities rather than people who live in city areas. The government is also taking some measures regarding home policies to get rid of health inequalities in society. Theories related to health inequalities are also discussed. Moreover, it has been found that people living in the least deprived areas suffer from health inequalities more than people residing in more advantageous areas in the UK.
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