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Essays Health inequality and disparity
Inequality affects health essays
Inequality affects health essays
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This essay discusses the determinants of health in New Zealand with a focus on maternity care in rural areas. The main determinants of health in New Zealand are the social, cultural and economic factors such as genetics, income, education, poverty, culture, occupation and housing. The second part of this essay goes on to describe how objectives of the New Zealand Health Strategy (NZHS) can have a positive impact on health care in New Zealand.
Dew and Matheson (2008) state that the disciplines of epidemiology and social epidemiology have progressively given more descriptions of health inequalities. They also state that epidemiology mainly focuses on how and from where infectious diseases spread, whereas social epidemiology looks at the patterning of health outcomes involved with social characteristics such as gender, ethnicity and income in order to find the causes of differences between these groups. Key determinants of maternity care in rural areas are education, income, a sense of control over life circumstances and access to health care services (Ministry of Health [MoH], 2000).
Full maternity care comprises of prenatal care, early pregnancy care, antenatal care, postnatal care and also full obstetric care (Preston & Miller, 2012). Midwives are the main providers of maternity services in rural areas, who work as either Lead Maternity Carers (LMCs), who provide maternity care for women from early pregnancy up to six weeks postnatal, or are employed by rural maternity hospitals, providing maternity care when women are in the hospital (Kyle & Aileone, 2013). There is an increasing number of expectant mothers who experience difficulties in finding a suitable LMC, especially in rural areas, as there is a shortage of both midwi...
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...). Mapping the rural midwifery workforce in New Zealand. Retrieved from http://www.mmpo.org.nz
Ministry of Health. (2000). The New Zealand health strategy. Wellington, New Zealand: Author.
Ministry of Health. (2009). Guide to the national travel assistance (NTA) policy 2005. Retrieved from http://www.health.govt.nz
Ministry of Health. (2014). Pregnancy services. Retrieved from http://www.health.govt.nz
National Health Committee. (2010). Rural health: Challenges of distance; opportunities for innovation. Wellington, New Zealand: Author.
Power, S. (2009, June 15). Maternity services a top priority. Manawatu Standard. Retrieved from http://www.stuff.co.nz
Preston, H., & Miller, D. (2012). Final year medical students’ perception of maternity care in general practice. New Zealand Medical Journal, 125(1352). Retrieved from http://journal.nzma.org.nz/journal/
According to the World Health Organisation (2017) the social determinants of health are defined as the conditions where people are born, grown, work and live, which also includes the health system. The social determinants of health determined populations health’s outcomes and therefore linked with health inequalities (WHO, 2017)
Pairman,S., Tracy, S., Thorogood, C., & Pincombe, J. (2013). Theoretical frameworks for midwifery practice. Midwifery: Preparation for practice.(2nd ed, pp. 313-336). Chatswood, N.S.W. : Elsevier Australia
P2: Assess own knowledge, skills, practice, values, beliefs and career aspirations at the start of the programme.
...nts of Health and the Prevention of Health Inequities. Retrieved 2014, from Australian Medical Association: https://ama.com.au/position-statement/social-determinants-health-and-prevention-health-inequities-2007
Social determinants of health (SDOH) are increasingly becoming a major problem of Public Health around the World. The impact of resources and material deprivation among people and populations has resulted in an increase in mortality rate on a planetary scale. Social determinants of health are defined as the personal, social, economic and the environmental conditions which determines the health status of an individual or population (Gardner, 2013). Today’s society is characterized by inequalities in health, education, income and many other factors which as a result is becoming a burden for Public Health around the world. Research studies have shown that the conditions in which people live and work strongly influenced their health. Individuals with high levels of education and fall within the high income bracket turn to have stable jobs, live in the best neighborhood and have access to quality health care system than individuals who have low education and fall with the low income bracket. This paper is to explain different social determinants of health and how they play ...
The focal point of this report is the Victorian Health and Wellbeing plan 2015 – 2019, created by the Victorian State Government after the imminent success of the original Victorian Health and Wellbeing plan allying the years of 2011 – 2015. The plan shares the ambitions of the World Health Organisation’s Global action plan on prevention and control of non-communicable disease. These ambitions of the distinct plan are “to reduce modifiable risk-factors and underlying social determinants by creating equitable health-promoting environments while aiming to strengthen and orient health systems for disease prevention and control through people-centred healthcare” (Department of Health, 2015). The report will tackle the priority area of Improving Sexual Health and Reproductive Health along with major components of the priority area such as the determinants of health and the at-risk groups affected by such an alteration. The determinants discussed are both biological and social, the biological; sex, the social; the social gradient, education and social support. The at-risk groups influenced by the priority area are; adolescents, pregnant women and new born children.
Living in a remote area has always been thought to have negative influences on the individual. There are 35 % of the total population in Australia living in rural area(Phillips, 2009).Rural areas in Australia and all over the world are not geographically isolated and disadvantaged only but also culturally and economically deprived which has great consequences on the health status of the population. The main two factors that have a major effect on rural health are socioeconomic status and cultural issues(Beard, Tomaska, Earnest, Summerhayes, & Morgan, 2009).
Cook, Selig, Wedge, and Gohn-Baube (1999) stated that an essential part of the country’s public health agenda is to improve access to prenatal care, particularly for economically disadvantaged women. I agree with this statement because access to care is very important for the outcome of a healthy mother and child. Improving access to prenatal care for disadvantaged women will not only save lives but also lighten the high financial, social, and emotional costs of caring for low weight babies. Some of the barriers that these women face are mainly structural where the availability of care is limited; the cost of care is a financial burden; and the time to seek care is problematic due to being single mothers working more than one job (Lia-Hoagberb, 1990). Additionally, there is the issue of prenatal care being delivered differently depending on one’s race. A study found that White mothers delivering ve...
Topic 3: "Outline the social determinants of health in Australia and provide a critical analysis of these determinants. Discuss the current health status comparisons between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians and interventions to remedy these inequalities.”
The Social Determinants of Health are certain circumstances that have an effect on the health and overall well being of humans and their own commonalities in terms of financial and societal situations. The reason why it is essential for us to pass beyond considering women’s health and access to health care as individual or biological problems is because women bear unique health needs yet so much health systems are not even acknowledging them. There are situations only females experience that have bad health affects, such as childbirth and pregnancy, although they aren't diseases, physiological and social tactics carry many health jeopardies depend upon health care. Gender based inequalities
Wilkinson, R.G. & Marmot, M.G. 2003, Social determinants of health: the solid facts, World Health Organization.
Social determinants of health has been a large topic for many years and can have a positive and negative effect on individuals, families and communities. (World Health Organisation, 2009) The social determinants of health are the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work and age, including the health system. These circumstances are shaped by the distribution of money, power and resources at global, national and local levels, which are themselves influenced by policy choices. Social determinants have many factors and in this essay education will be the main social determinant of health discussed and how this could have an impact on the physical and mental sides of health.
Chances are that terms such as “midwife” and “home birth” conjure up for you old-fashioned images of childbirth. These words may bring to mind scenes from old movies, but you’re not likely to associate them with the modern image of childbirth. Do you know anyone who has had a midwife-assisted birth or a home birth? Would you consider one?
Since the introduction of the Ottawa Charter in 1986, health promotion across the world has taken a more preventative, or “upstream”, approach. This was done through the enlightenment of the socioenvronmental approach that focused less on lifestyle choices and immediate medical intervention, but instead the factors that directly and indirectly influenced health (Cohen, 2012). In this revolutionary charter, the socioenvironmental approach introduced key predictors to population health, which are now known as the social determinants of health (Cohen, 2012). These determinants range from income to race and gender, and encompass all of the effects that these factors have on individual and population health. Mikkonen and Raphael perfectly summarize
An important area for the development of a country is definitely the health sector, but in countries like Nepal where the Human Development Index(WHO, 2012) is only 0.463, a lot of people do not even receive any health provisions. The ethnic groups such as Dalit and Janajati in Nepal, are much affected by the unequal access and use of state- provided public health resources, facilities and services. In many cases, even among all these, it is the women and children (especially girls) who suffer the most as they are discriminated based on gender, caste and ethnicity. That being said, through this research I will be focusing on the health issues among the women in Nepal and how various factors such as the gender inequality, caste system, and traditional beliefs contribute to affect their health.