Health Inequalities
Prompt: Critically discuss the impact of social factors on health inequalities. Make reference to at least two theoretical approaches to explaining health inequalities and suggest how useful they are, as well as their weaknesses.
Ironically, great improvements in sanitation and medical care in recent centuries have been accompanied, not by equal improvements in overall health, but by increasing inequalities in health in developed countries. The release of the Black Report in 1980 brought health inequalities to the forefront of academic and policy debate with social factors surfacing as among the most powerful determinants of health[1-2]. These social factors include social status, childhood experience, stress and anxiety, and social relationships among others. To explain how these social factors might lead to health inequalities, two prominent theories have emerged: the behavioral/cultural and the socio-structural approach. These approaches initially appear to be two sound theories fundamentally in opposition, with the former focusing on individual …show more content…
At first, an examination of the behavioral/cultural and socio-structural approach suggested these were opposing explanations to inequalities with the former advocating individual agency and the latter focusing on societal structures. Yet, a closer look revealed weaknesses and an overlap between these explanations. Furthermore, if two such different theories can overlap, this hints at a larger implicit theme in health inequalities: that most of these explanations are not mutually exclusive but instead are very much related. Finally, in order to truly tackle health inequalities, as many explanations as possible should be combined to paint a full picture of the complex web of individual, community, societal and global factors that cause health
Ironically, great improvements in sanitation and medical care in recent centuries have been accompanied, not by equal improvements in overall health, but by increasing inequalities in health in developed countries. The release of the Black Report in 1980 brought health inequalities to the forefront of academic and policy debate with social factors surfacing as among the most powerful determinants of health[1-2]. These social factors include social status, childhood experience, stress and anxiety, and social relationships among others. To explain how these social factors might lead to health inequalities, two prominent theories have emerged: the behavioral/cultural and the socio-structural approach. These approaches initially appear to be two sound theories fundamentally in opposition, with the former focusing on individual …show more content…
At first, an examination of the behavioral/cultural and socio-structural approach suggested these were opposing explanations to inequalities with the former advocating individual agency and the latter focusing on societal structures. Yet, a closer look revealed weaknesses and an overlap between these explanations. Furthermore, if two such different theories can overlap, this hints at a larger implicit theme in health inequalities: that most of these explanations are not mutually exclusive but instead are very much related. Finally, in order to truly tackle health inequalities, as many explanations as possible should be combined to paint a full picture of the complex web of individual, community, societal and global factors that cause health