Behavioural Science

Behavioural Science

Question 1

How and does (or does not) SES affect population health? Can a political approach be used to address SES?

Research conducted over the period of past few decades shows that Socio Economic Status affects population health significantly. The major reasons behind the impacts of socio economic status on heath of population is that people, who belong to lower socio economic groups, fail to fulfill their nutritional and medical needs. Political approach may be used to address SES issues, by equalizing the health benefits for all people regardless of their social and economic status. The political policies can bring change in the health conditions of the population, which the individuals cannot do themselves.

Socio Economic Status of a person defines the health of a person up to a large extent. The absence or lack of monetary resources makes a person unable to fulfill the nutritional needs. This fact has been observed since many centuries; for example, prior to the 20th century, Western Europe population was under developed physiologically due to inadequate food supply (Fogel, 2003). The socio economic status plays an important role in organ development, maintaining the health of a person, and prevention of diseases.

Mortality is highly considered to be based on the factors of income, education and occupation. The people who belong from high socio economic classes are highly likely to have access to basic medical care facilities and healthy life styles (Marmot, 2006). The people who have high income levels have access to healthy food, medical services, and fitness and exercise services; for example, the people belonging to high socio economic class can afford to pay the membership charges of gym, while the people belonging from low income groups cannot have access to such facilities. Also, the families from the low income groups cannot afford to purchase nutritious foods. As a result, the family members have to rely on the fast foods, high on calorie and fats; such food items give rise to various chronic diseases such as Diabetes, heart diseases, obesity and the associated diseases.

The families belonging from lower socio economic groups cannot provide their children with the healthy environment and neighborhoods. The children learn many things from the environment in which they spend their time playing. Variety of neighborhoods including safe and unsafe neighborhoods affects children. The children who grow up in positive neighborhoods get a chance to play outside, and exercising more. On the other hand, the children who grow up in unsafe areas of US do not get the opportunity of playing out of homes, and hence they get little exercise. In such settings, the long lasting issues such as childhood obesity raises.

The political analysis and efforts can improve the general population health significantly (Oliver, 2006). The political analysis provides the state with facts about the diseases, health conditions and accident rates etc. If the government takes incremental changes in health policy, the overall health conditions of the population are highly likely to improve, in contrast to the comprehensive ...