Health Inequalities

Understanding Social Inequality (Summer 2010)

4 (a) :Identify two areas of life in the contemporary UK where there is evidence of gender inequality. Illustrate your answer with reference to

appropriate evidence for each area identified.

5 (a) :Identify two areas of life in the contemporary UK where there is evidence of class inequality.

Illustrate your answer with reference to appropriate evidence for each area identified.

Understanding Social Inequality (Winter 2010)

4 (a) :Identify two areas of life in the contemporary UK where there is social class inequality. Illustrate your answer with reference to appropriate

evidence for each area identified.

5 (a) : Identify two areas of life in the contemporary UK where there is ethnic inequality. Illustrate your answer with reference to appropriate evidence for each area identified.

Mortality

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Morbidity

The Black Report (1980)

• Never published by government• 260 duplicated copies made – released before

August bank holiday

• The Health Divide (1987)

• Townsend (1990) “an attempted cover-up of unpalatable information about the nation’s health”

Improvement in health since 1970s• Life expectancy increasing• Infant mortality falling

BUT

The health of the poor has failed to keep up with the improvements of the most prosperous sections of society

Our Healthier Nation (1998)

• Labour Government• Officially recognising social class inequalities in

health• Social, environmental and economic causes of

ill health

(compare to The Black Report & The Health Divide)

“The poorest in our society are hit harder than the well off by most of

the major causes of death. Poor people are ill more often and die

sooner. The life expectancy of those higher up the social scale has

improved more than those lower down. This inequality has widened

since the early 1980s”Our Healthier Nation (1998)

Some facts... (Browne 2002)

• The death rate in class V (unskilled manual workers) is about twice that of class I (professionals)

• A person born into social class I lives on average about 7 years longer than someone in social class V

• Men and women in class V have twice the chance of dying before teaching retirement age of people in class I

• Lung cancer and stomach cancer occur twice as often among men in manual jobs as among men in professional jobs

• Four times as many women die of cervical cancer in social class V as in social class I

• Working class people go to see the doctors far more often and for a wider range of health problems than do people in professional jobs

• Long-standing illness is around 50% higher among unskilled manual workers than for class I professionals

Explanations of Health Inequalities

1. Artefact

2. Natural or social selection

3. Cultural

4. Material

1. Artefact• The relationship is a result of measurement

systems used

• What determines a person’s social class?(occupation, property ownership, educational status, access to social resources)

• How is ‘good health’ or ‘bad health’ measured

2. Natural or social selection

• The sickly will slide down the social scale

• While the robust will have a greater chance of social advancement

• Consequences of ill health (i.e. disability, unemployment, or demotion)

3. Cultural

• Lower social classes prefer less healthy lifestyles

• i.e. diet, exercise, smoking etc

CULTURAL DEPRIVATION

• This is why they have lower levels of health

4. Material

• Blames poverty, poor housing conditions, lack of resources in health and educational provision

• Higher risk occupations (manual)

• ECONOMIC DEPRIVATION