Depression And Social Class
While individuals’ socio-economic status is the most vital social influence on health and peoples’ wellbeing, the distribution of wealth through our societies as a whole plays an important part. Many researchers have concluded many inequalities in the distribution of health by ethnicity, social class (including income, wealth and education), and gender. These inequalities have been calculated using many different results and outcomes including infant deaths, life expectancy, disability, mortality rates and morbidity. In this essay, I will be discussing both depression and alcoholism, and how they are affected by social class. Depression is a very common yet serious mood disorder. It is actually one of the most common forms of mental illnesses
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Depression is most common in later life, and affects almost five million of the thirty-one million Americans aged sixty-five and over (Blazer, 2009). Having a low-economic status is associated with a higher possibility of depression (Lorant et all 2003). There are many investigations and measures that have been carried out to find out more about the correlation between depression and social class. For example, one measurement used to measure depression was an adjusted version of the global depression scale of the Health and Daily Living Form (HDL; Moos et al, 1990). This checklist was made to evaluate how severe the symptoms of the major depression was, according to Research Diagnostic Criteria (Spitzer et al, 1978). This global depression scale consists of eighteen questions in which participants are asked to answer them by ticking yes or no in reference to how they felt over the past seven days, making it very reliable, with an 89% specificity. For example, one of the questions asked is “Are you basically satisfied with your life? YES / NO”. Additionally, Oakes & Rossi (2003) defined socio-economic status in regard to three types of resources. These were the material standard of living, skills and social relationships. The material standard of living was measured by factors such as income, poverty, financial strain and deprivation. They calculated the monthly net equivalent household income using the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (1982) equivalence scale. The index of deprivation invented by Weich & Lewis (1998) was then calculated. This index assigns one point for each of the
Depression is most common in later life, and affects almost five million of the thirty-one million Americans aged sixty-five and over (Blazer, 2009). Having a low-economic status is associated with a higher possibility of depression (Lorant et all 2003). There are many investigations and measures that have been carried out to find out more about the correlation between depression and social class. For example, one measurement used to measure depression was an adjusted version of the global depression scale of the Health and Daily Living Form (HDL; Moos et al, 1990). This checklist was made to evaluate how severe the symptoms of the major depression was, according to Research Diagnostic Criteria (Spitzer et al, 1978). This global depression scale consists of eighteen questions in which participants are asked to answer them by ticking yes or no in reference to how they felt over the past seven days, making it very reliable, with an 89% specificity. For example, one of the questions asked is “Are you basically satisfied with your life? YES / NO”. Additionally, Oakes & Rossi (2003) defined socio-economic status in regard to three types of resources. These were the material standard of living, skills and social relationships. The material standard of living was measured by factors such as income, poverty, financial strain and deprivation. They calculated the monthly net equivalent household income using the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (1982) equivalence scale. The index of deprivation invented by Weich & Lewis (1998) was then calculated. This index assigns one point for each of the