Health Analysis

Comparison of Health Statistics between Crompton and Coldhurst

Comparison of Health Statistics between Crompton and Coldhurst

Introduction

The concept of community has led to significant debate, and sociologists are yet to reach agreement on a definition of the term. There were ninety-four discrete definitions of the term by the mid-1950s. Traditionally a "community" has been defined as a group of interacting people living in a common location. The word is often used to refer to a group that is organized around common values and is attributed with social cohesion within a shared geographical location, generally in social units larger than a household. The word can also refer to the national community or global community.

Since the advent of the Internet, the concept of community no longer has geographical limitations, as people can now virtually gather in an online community and share common interests regardless of physical location.

The question of priority, whether for the individual or community, must be determined in dealing with pressing ethical questions about a variety of social issues, such as health care, abortion, multiculturalism, and hate speech. Community organizers generally seek to build groups that are open and democratic in governance. Such groups facilitate and encourage consensus decision-making with a focus on the general health of the community rather than a specific interest group.

Housing and Health

Housing is a key health determinant both as an internal and external living environment. Internal housing health and safety factors are well documented and there is increasing recognition that the wider housing environment location represents access to employment, training, facilities, decent food, social cohesion and so on. A lower income leads to less - if any - choice in housing and this is aggravated by stress, lack of social support and sometimes health-damaging behaviours (Blackburn, 1991), which can damage physical and mental health (Naidoo and Wills, 2000).

The health and housing relationship is compounded for children, who are still too frequently housed in unsatisfactory living conditions that can give rise to physical and emotional ill health that - once suffered - can be magnified into adulthood. The complex relationship of children, housing and health is documented, but not commonly drawn together into the impact of poor living environments in general on health, which was recognised by Acheson's “inquiry into inequalities in health” (Acheson, 1998) as representing a key aspect of inequality.

Education and Health

Cutler and Lleras-Muney suggest three broad explanations for the association between health and education, although they recognize that these do not represent an exhaustive list. The first is that poor health leads to lower levels of schooling, since poor health in childhood is linked to poor health in adulthood. However, it is unlikely that the correlation between child health and adult health fully explains the relationship between adult health and completed education. Because few children in the U.S. fail to attend school solely because of illness, one would anticipate the relationship between education and health to weaken over time. However, this relationship has strengthened, suggesting that poor health alone cannot explain the relationship between education ...