Journal of Hospital & Medical Management

Description

Rather than individual risk factors, such as behavioural risk factors or genetics, that influence the risk for a disease or vulnerability to disease or injury, the Social Determinants of Health (SDOH) are the economic and social conditions that influence individual and group differences in health status. These are the health promoting factors found in one's living and working conditions (such as the distribution of income, wealth, influence, and power). Social determinants' distributions are frequently influenced by local political ideologies and public policies. The World Wellbeing Association says that "the social determinants can be a higher priority than medical care or way of life decisions in impacting wellbeing. This unequal distribution of health-damaging experiences is not in any way a 'natural' phenomenon; rather, it is the result of a toxic combination of poor social policies, unfair economic arrangements where the well-off and healthy become even richer and the poor, who are already more likely to be sick, become even poorer and poor politics." While there are health disparities between men and women, women have historically experienced more health disparities than men. This is because a lot of cultural ideas and practices have made a structured patriarchal society where women are more likely to be abused and treated badly. In addition, women are usually denied opportunities like paid work and education that can make it easier for them to get better health care. In mixed-sex clinical trials, women are frequently underrepresented or excluded, exposing doctors to bias in diagnosis and treatment.

Morbidity and Mortality

The relationship between racial identity and health is referred to as "race and health." Race is a complicated concept that has changed over time and is based on self-identification as well as social recognition. In the study of race and health, scientists divide people into different racial categories based on things like: Phenotype, ancestry, social identity, and genetic makeup, as well as lived experience. In health research, race and ethnicity frequently remain undifferentiated. Health disparities are defined as "preventable differences in the burden of disease, injury, violence, or opportunities to achieve optimal health that are experienced by socially disadvantaged populations. Health disparities are intrinsically related to the "historical and current unequal distribution of social, political, economic and environmental resources. Epidemiological data indicate that racial groups are unequally affected by diseases, in terms of morbidity and mortality. Some individuals in certain The connection among race and wellbeing has been considered according to multidisciplinary viewpoints, with expanding center around what prejudice means for wellbeing inconsistencies and how natural and physiological variables answer each other and to genetics.

Globalization has caused a lopsided dispersion of riches and influence both inside and across public lines and where and in what circumstance an individual is conceived tremendously affects their wellbeing results. Life expectancy, infant mortality, disease incidence, and death from injuries were found to be significantly different between developed and developing nations by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Migrants and members of their families also face significant negative health effects. These disparities may exist in the context of the health care system or in broader social approaches. The WHO's commission on social determinants of health argued that health care should be a common good rather than a market commodity and that access to it is necessary for equitable health. However, health care systems and coverage vary significantly from country to country. In the Rio Political Declaration on Social Determinants of Health, several key areas of action were identified to address inequalities, including promotion of participatory policy-making processes, strengthening global governance and collaboration and encouraging developed countries to reach a target of 0.7% of Gross National Product (GNP) for official development assistance. The commission also calls for government action on issues such as access to clean water and safe, equitable working conditions and it notes that dangerous working conditions exist even in some wealthy countries.

Comparing Psychosocial Factors

The people's material living conditions are emphasized in the materialist/structuralist explanation. Working conditions, the quality of the food and housing available and the availability of resources to access the amenities of life are examples of these conditions. Three frameworks have been developed within this perspective to explain how social determinants affect health. These frameworks are as follows: (a) a materialist b) an anti-materialist and (c) comparing psychosocial factors. The materialist perspective explains how health is influenced by living conditions and the social determinants of health that are a part of those living conditions. By asking how these living conditions occur, the neo-materialist explanation extends the materialist analysis. The psychosocial comparison explanation takes into account whether individuals compare themselves to other people and how these comparisons affect health and well-being. The effect of stress on human physiology is the direct link between health outcomes and stress. A meta-analysis of healing studies has found that there is a robust relationship between elevated stress levels and slower healing for many different acute and chronic conditions. However, it is also important to note that certain factors, such as coping styles and social support, can mitigate the relationship between chronic stress and health outcomes. Stress can also be seen to have an indirect effect on health status. Chronic stress has been found to be significantly associated with chronic low-grade inflammation, slower wound healing, increased susceptibility to the strain placed on the stressed person's mental resources is one reason this happens. People with low socioeconomic status are more likely to suffer from chronic stress because they have to balance worries about their families' housing status, their financial security and how they will feed their families. As a result, people with these kinds of worries may lack the emotional resources necessary to engage in healthy behaviours. As a result, people who experience chronic stress may be less likely to put their health first. In their book The Spirit Level, Wilkinson and Picket hypothesized that the stressors associated with low social status are amplified in societies where others are clearly far better off, suggesting that the negative effects of stress on health outcomes may partially explain why countries with high levels of income inequality have poorer health outcomes than countries with more equal income distributions.