Global Health Disparities Essay

1536 Words4 Pages

When discussing the topic of global health disparities, there are many factors that cause these major problems. Firstly, the major categories of these causes are broken into five major sections. These sections are socioeconomic status, biological factors, personal factors, culture, and environment. The reasoning behind these major categories is because there are many factors within these categories that affect global health disparities in general. Within the realm of socioeconomic status; income levels, education levels, and occupation all effect global health disparities. Income level refers to low and middle income countries. Most global health disparities occur within low and middle income countries. This is because the countries cannot …show more content…

Exercise and diet are both aspects that affect each other. Poor diet and exercise can lead to obesity, malnutrition, and a number of other problems. Within low and middle income countries, obesity is not necessarily a problem, however poor diet choices lead to malnutrition. Poor diet and malnutrition in mothers affect their children. Low birth weight, birth defects, and other issues arise from malnourished mothers, and often their children struggle with malnutrition after they are born. This starts a vicious cycle called the cycle of malnutrition. Health behaviors such as substance abuse and unprotected sex also contribute to global health disparities. These behaviors can lead to many fatal diseases and infections including lung cancer, cervical cancer, sexually transmitted diseases, heart disease, etc. Unprotected sex among the heterosexual community is also a major issue because of the spread of HIV/AIDS. Sexual orientation can contribute to global health disparities for this reason. There are many other factors within the web of causation that affect personal behaviors. Weight, ethnicity, gender, religion and social norms are all factors that affect personal …show more content…

The five categories include the largest causes of global health disparities and are comprised of different contributing factors. The reason behind breaking down socioeconomic status into income, education, and occupation is because those three components comprise the definition of socioeconomic status. The purpose for using ethnicity, gender, weight, and age as genetic factors that contribute to global health disparities is to show these genetic factors are not changed by any factor, but they change many factors and outcomes when analyzed. Personal behaviors is comprised of exercise, diet, sexual orientation, and health behaviors because these are all based on choice. Culture has been broken down into religion and social norms because culture is comprised of personal beliefs and practices. This definition directly describes both religion and social norms. Where environment is concerned, there are many factors that influence environment. Location, water and air quality, infrastructure, and government policy are the main subcategories that are used to explain how environment contributes to global health disparities. Many of the global health disparities that stem from environmental factors often fall in one of these groups. In order to cover the

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