HEALTH OVER THE LIFE SPAN

Health over the life span



Health over the life span

Introduction

The social inequality and disparities are found in the societies in Britain not only today but they have been prevalent for years. These inequalities make the society question if domestic and global inequalities highlight the inevitability and functionality of stratification. Human geographers became directly interested in the study of inequality when the focus of the discipline shifted to examining spatial differences using quantitative methods and exploring how different variables varied across space (Britton, 2000,418-434). Typically, such variations occurred across a country or city, although a few scholars were interested in variations across the globe.

There are varying definitions of health inequalities, or healthcare inequality, within the healthcare community. Generally, a health disparity is defined as a substantial difference in health between one population and another. Health inequalities are the differences between groups of people that can affect how frequently a disease affects a group, how many people get sick, or how often the disease causes death (Barr, 2008, p65).” The different populations is influenced by health inequalities as “racial and ethnic minorities; residents of rural areas; women, children, the elderly; and persons with disabilities.”

Similarly, the health inequalities are defined as the “differences in the incidence, prevalence, and mortality of a disease and the related adverse health conditions that exist among specific population groups.” These groups are characterized by “gender, age, ethnicity, education, income, social class, disability, geographic location, or sexual orientation.” Some of these populations are characterized by a greater rate of avoidable disabilities, disease, and death compared to other populations and no minorities (Wade, 2004, 567-589).

Discussion

The term health inequalities are related to the population specific differences due to the presence of health outcomes, diseases, access to health care services and quality of health care that exists across the ethnic and racial groups. Therefore, health inequalities mean the lack of efficiency or effectiveness within the system of health care. This is the main reason that the health care sector is managing unnecessary costs. In a study that was conducted in 2009 by the joint center for economic and political studies for planning on how to eliminate the health care inequalities for minorities and what will be its effects on overall healthcare expenditures.

There are many factors that contribute to socioeconomic, ethnic and racial health inequalities; it also includes insufficient access to health care facilities, personal behaviors and community features. These are the factors that are often associated with the ethnic minority and underserved racial groups so these have to be controlled in order to overcome the health care inequalities. Individuals living in both rural and urban areas can experience health inequalities, which is due to the lack of facilities and healthcare professionals (Dovidio, 2008, p478).

Causes and consequences

On average, in Britain, men earn more than women, although the difference between the sexes is being reduced in most developed countries. In many poorer countries, however, the divide is still ...