Understanding and discussing some of the major risk factors for health and health care disparities. Generally, Social Determinants of Health can be defined as the conditions or states affecting the well-being of the human population, (Currie, ET, AL, 2009). In most cases, these conditions are characterized by the place where people live, work or take their educational studies. Furthermore, age is an important factor that brings the differential health status across gender. At times, these Social Determinants of Health have been understood to range from one factor to another. For instance, these factors have been associated with the general lifestyle of the human population where young people are seen to be more exposed to health disparities, unlike the older generations. On this note, some of the major risk factors for health and healthcare disparities are not limited to, economic, biological, social, political, cultural, environmental, and physical factors. To some epidemiological concepts, these factors are deduced to place, person, agent, and time of infection. Concerning economic factors, these are factors that relate to an individual’s capacity of having sustainable economic growth. For example, people may not afford quality health care due to lack of funds, unlike the population who probably are able to access basic and quality health care due to the availability of funds. Moreover, those who come from less developed countries may not have adequate personnel in the healthcare sector, thus limiting the provision of quality healthcare services. On the other hand, there are certain biological factors that are likely to affect the general well-being of the human population. For example, the biological makeup of females like vaginal fluid secretions can expose them to certain diseases like sexually transmitted diseases than their male counterparts. Additionally, the male population, especially the young likes to engage in risky behaviors like drug injections, and thus can be infected with other diseases including HIV/AIDS. Some social behaviors can also expose people to poor health. A good example is having more than one sexual partner can lead to the spread of infectious diseases. Furthermore, political factors may also influence health decision-making processes. Some health problems that are affecting the human population depend on political goodwill. At times, politicians can fail to make very key health decisions thus exposing the well-being of the governed population at risk. Moreover, some cultural practices like female genital mutilation affect the well-being of females. These cultures expose the health of the girl child to great risk to the extent that such girls in one way or another other may not give birth in the future. Again, some of the health determinants are associated with environmental factors. For example, the human population is likely to be exposed to an unhygienic environment thus causing diseases like diarrhea, (WHO, 2002). Therefore, the human environment is key when it comes to the general well-being of the population. Other physical factors that may affect the well-being of the human population include mechanical factors such as sun rays that may cause sunburns among the population. These affect the health status of the exposed populations. In terms of the person, race and racism are other social determinants of health. When people are discriminated against to the extent that they are denied services, then their health status can easily deteriorate, (Braveman, Egerter, & Williams, 2011). Finally, the level of education can also act as a determinant of health status. For example, the population with a high level of education can easily understand the general health problems they are facing and as a result take the necessary action due to the availability of information. However, people with low levels of education may not be bothered with their health status and only realize that their health is generally deteriorating when it is too late. Why they are associated with poorer outcomes among some multicultural populations? In a multicultural population, different people have different health interests. In the process, no one is keen to take into consideration an environment that is perceived to be free and conducive to life, (Walsh, et, al, 1993). Instead, some of the behaviors of certain cultures may be exposing the other group of people to high risks of disease spread. How social advantage and health advantage are transmitted across lifetimes and generations. Normally, when people are born into families that are socially stable, then they can take control of the existing resources. For example, a father may decide to pass all his wealth to the son and thus enables the son to continue living the same lifestyle which may not be good such as excessive drinking of alcohol that may cause cancer of the lungs. On health advantage, behind a healthy mother, there is a healthy child. This means that when the families have learned to maintain a healthy lifestyle, then the future generations in the same family are likely to follow the same suit. In other words, future generations will only do what they have been seeing in their families as far as health is concerned. Implications for health care policy of addressing health. Some health policies have proved to be beneficial when it comes to the improvement of the general health status of the population. For instance, a policy barring people from smoking can help in reducing cases of lung cancer, (WHO, 2002). First, there is inadequate information on how best social factors can be addressed to improve the general well-being of the human population. Secondly, a timeline for putting up an intervention has remained a challenge now that when and how to reduce health disparities is an area that has not been understood. How to reduce these challenges? There is a need to provide health education and promotion to create awareness of addressing social factors that affect human health. Finally, continuous disease surveillance should be done to detect health problems early enough so that an intervention can be put in place appropriately.
References
Braveman, P., Egerter, S., & Williams, D. R. (2011). The social determinants of health: coming of age. Annual review of public health , 32 , 381-398.
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Currie, C., Zanotti, C., Morgan, A., Currie, D., De Looze, M., Roberts, C., ... & Barnekow, V. (2009). Social determinants of health and well-being among young people. Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study: international report from the , 2010 , 271.
Walsh, D. C., Rudd, R. E., Moeykens, B. A., & Moloney, T. W. (1993). Social marketing for public health. Health Affairs , 12 (2), 104-119.
World Health Organization. (2002). National cancer control programmes: policies and managerial guidelines . World Health Organization.
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