Are the Social Determinants of Health Our Daily Living Conditions? - Paper Example

Introduction

Are the social determinants of health our daily living conditions? Considering that our day to day living conditions revolves around food, warmth, shelter, and ability to participate in the society, it might be a direct cause.

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According to research, some of the social determinants include disability, education, food security, gender, income, and income distribution, housing, race, unemployment and health services. However, being poor as a child is a better predictor of whether you are going to get tied to diabetes or heart disease, says Dr. Dennis Raphael during his talk on 24th October 2013. "When people have not so good social determinants of health, they know that and experience stress and anxiety".

The dominant narrative on the social determinants of health is the material living conditions of a person mostly emphasized on the social locations. The social locations of an individual consist of accredited social identities such as sexual orientation, kinship status, race, ethnicity etc. and social roles and relationships (political party membership, occupation etc.) that grant those divergent duties, interests, the role has given goals and powers. However, the information delivered by Dr. Raphael reveals missing context such as education of a person, the working conditions, housing, race, unemployment, early life, gender, disability, social exclusion, social safety net and finally aboriginal status.

From all the points given by Dr. Raphael, he gave a well-detailed explanation of each from his research. According to the rising number of people living with diabetes especially among older people, he says that the cause of diabetes is not yet known. A large number of people have come to the conclusion that it is as a result of 'bad genes' where each and every group apart from the white Europeans have bad genes. He goes on and gives an example that 20 years ago in South Asia, people depended on traditional diets that were a little bit oily and heavy. However, 20 years later, they have all given up on that and are now eating like Canadians. Why is that? It is all because of poverty.

Poverty, according to research, has greatly affected health among many people. Take a look at the current cost of treatment. The financially disadvantaged group of people is the worst hit since they can barely afford the best treatment. Another case is where pregnant women cannot afford a healthy diet as required so as to have a healthy baby in the end. That alone brings forth a child with poor health. Other than poverty, working conditions in industries have also been a key factor in deteriorating health among many people. A good example is of a pregnant woman working in a lead company. Most of the industries today have a poor process of disposing of dirt. If the industry is not emitting off the gas in the right manner, it pollutes the air and water. The moment the pregnant woman inhales contaminated air, it causes respiratory disorder to her and immediately causes harm to the unborn child. Most of the children affected by such conditions are born with mental disabilities.

The highly educated citizens should put into consideration the matter concerning health and actualize their words so as to have a better universe and mostly improve the lives of citizens.