Impact of Health Determinants

SUMMATIVE ASSESSMENT 2

Introduction

According to Gómez et al. (2021), addressing determinants of health help to reduce longstanding inequalities in health and make significant progress towards promoting health equity at individual as well as community basis. It reflects that determining how each determinant of health can affect health and wellbeing of an individual and community is essential for developing policies and interventions that help to address those determinants and improve health and wellbeing of individuals and communities. Considering this, the aim of this essay is to discuss and evaluate the impact of health determinants, including biological, social, and environmental on individual as well as community health through using relevant facts, statistics, and examples.

The first part of the essay will present background information entailing definitions of health determinants and health inequality. The second part of the essay will be main section of the essay detailing category of three determinants and one specific determinant for each category. This section will also discuss how each determinant may have an influence on health and wellbeing in different groups. The last section will present concluding summary of the overall essay.

Background

According to World Health Organisation (WHO), determinants of health are defined as factors affecting health and wellbeing of an individual. The determinants of health include social determinants, biological determinants, environmental determinants, and individual behaviours and characteristics of an individual (World Health Organisation, 2017). All these determinants are likely to affect health and wellbeing of people and communities. Whether an individual is healthy or suffering from any illness can be determined by their environment, behaviour, and circumstance. In the support, Evans et al. (2021) stated that factors such as age, genetics, environmental condition, education, income, etc. have significant effect on health of individuals and communities. In particular, Artiga and Hinton (2018) stated that determinants of health such as social determinants have a major effect on health, wellbeing, and quality of life among individuals. For example, poverty or lower socioeconomic status of people makes them unable to access to quality healthcare services which lead them to experience health inequities and poor health outcomes.

As stated by Williams et al. (2022), health inequalities are defined as the avoidable and unjust differences in health of people across the population and between specific groups of population. Change of mortality among different groups of population is a prominent example of health inequalities and their effects on people. With regard to it, Ferdows et al. (2020) stated that the gap in mortality rates for cancer patients have become increased between White and Black men living in the rural areas and have lower educational background. It is also highlighted by the National Cancer Institute that inequalities in rate of mortality on the basis of educational background has been observed (Goding Sauer et al., 2019). It asserts that people with low education from any racial background are likely to die more from colorectal cancer than people with higher level of education.

In contrast, health inequities are regarded to as systematic differences in the status of health among different groups of population (WHO, 2018). For example, inequitable access to healthcare services among lower income population and people with lower educational level made them unable to receive quality care relative to their health needs. In the support, De Silva and Sumarto (2018) stated that people born in regions where rate of poverty is high are likely to have inaccessibility to clean water, safe housing, education, medical care, and healthy food. In addition, Chokshi (2018) stated that average life expectancy is dependent on the area an individual is living in. For instance, people with lower socioeconomic status have low average life expectancy than people with higher socioeconomic status. In this regard, a study conducted by Frimpong (2019) emphasised that people living in Sierra Leone have a life expectancy of 50 years, while people living in Japan have an average life expectancy of 84 years.

Three Specific Determinants in relation to Health

General Discussion on Types of Determinants

In relation to health, the broad categories of determinants include biological, environmental, and social determinants. Bhargava et al. (2021) stated that biological determinants of health are referred to as the individual characteristics and behaviour of an individual that have biological basis such as sex, age, genetics, ethnicity, pathology, family predisposition, etc. On the contrary, Petrakis and Lethborg (2020) stated that the social determinants of health are defined as the non-biological factors that can affect health outcomes. In other words, social determinants are the social and economic conditions where people are live, born, and work. These factors may have a considerable effect on health outcomes, quality of life, and functioning. Moreover, a study conducted by Almeida et al. (2020) reported that environmental determinants of health are those factors that have a direct effect on people’s health and wellbeing after exposure to environmental circumstances, including air pollution, poor sanitation, unsafe drinking water, etc.

Biological Determinant: Age

One of the major biological determinants that may have an influence on health and wellbeing of individuals and communities is age. In this regard, Ogrodnik et al. (2019) stated that ageing is a natural biological process that results from the effect of the accumulation of a wide range of cellular and molecular damage over time. The age factor contributes in gradual reduction of physical as well as mental capacity, leading to increase of developing disease and eventually death. It is further stated that conditions that are commonly associated with older age group include cardiovascular impairment, dementia, musculoskeletal disorders, etc. In support, Grande et al. (2020) stated that age factor is one of the major biological determinants affecting on health outcomes of people with dementia. The prevalence rate of dementia is high among older adults as it affects thinking, memory, and ability to perform daily tasks. The findings of the report conducted by WHO (2023) further highlighted that the dementia prevalence is high in people aged 65 or older. It reflects that age factor make the people vulnerable to the risk of developing dementia.

Social Determinant: Lower-Socioeconomic Status or Poverty

According to a research executed by Donkin et al. (2018), social determinants of health may have a considerable effect on health and wellbeing of individuals and communities. For example, lower socioeconomic status or poverty makes people vulnerable to adverse health outcomes. A research conducted by Volaco et al. (2018) second this statement and highlighted that population with lower socioeconomic status found to have high risk of developing diabetes comparatively to the population with higher socioeconomic status. Additionally, Stormacq et al. (2019) critiqued that poor housing conditions among population with lower socioeconomic status make them vulnerable to the diabetes prevalence due to lack of resources’ availability that support healthy nutrition and physical activity. It asserts that socioeconomic status is one of the major social determinants affecting health and wellbeing of population and community.

Environmental Determinant: Air Quality or Air Pollution

Air pollution is one of the major environmental determinants of health affect health and wellbeing outcomes. According to Niessen et al. (2018), exposure of people to a high level of air pollution may develop a wide range of adverse health outcomes. The high level of pollution in the air increases the risk of heart disease, respiratory infections, and lung cancer. It asserts that people living in the region having poor quality of air are at high risk of adverse health and wellbeing. Furthermore, a research conducted by Manisalidis et al. (2020) demonstrated that air pollution has negative effects on people living in surroundings of poor air quality and develop long-term health impacts, including pulmonary insufficiency, chronic asthma, cardiovascular diseases. In support, Siddharthan et al. (2018) evaluates that air pollution associated outcomes are prevalent among poor, children, and elderly population. It reflects that air pollution as a major environmental determinant has severe impact on health and wellbeing of people and communities.

Definitions and Statistics of Each Chosen Health Determinant

Age as a biological determinant of health is defined as the time duration that an individual has lived (Amidei et al., 2021). As people ages, the risk of poor health outcomes also increases. For example, blood pressure and blood glucose level is high among older adults as compared to younger adults. Evidence also suggested that subgroups of elderly population residing in the long-term care facilities have major functional declines such as morbidity, disability, and mortality (Yang et al., 2021). It asserts that older people have high prevalence of frailty and considerable enhancement in the need for long-term care services.

In relation to socioeconomic status and health outcomes, Schultz et al. (2018) demonstrated that socioeconomic status may have an influence on quality of life attributes along with privileges and opportunities afforded to population within the community. In the UK, poor quality of life such as lower socioeconomic status is a major determinant of long-term conditions. Individuals living in the UK with lower socioeconomic status are more likely to have adverse health outcomes. In contrast, prevalence of poor health outcomes such as diarrhoea is high among people with lower socioeconomic status living in Nigeria (Awoniyi and Neupane, 2021.). It reflects that socioeconomic status is a major social determinant of health, beneficial for determining and addressing the factors affecting health at both individual and community levels. It has significant implication for improving health and wellbeing of people living in lower socioeconomic status through providing accessibility to healthcare resources at individual and community levels.

In the UK, the prevalence of air pollution is considerably low. Nevertheless, Reames and Bravo (2019) evaluated that some air pollutants in urban areas are likely to cause severe air pollution and associated health outcomes for people and community. On the other hand, Emetere and Oladimeji (2019) stated that air pollution is high in Chad due to emissions of heavy air pollutants in the environment. It asserts that air pollution has significant implication for improving health and wellbeing of people living in poor air quality through implementing interventions to improve quality of air.

Influence of Each Determinant on Health in Different Groups

Existing literature suggested that each determinant of health affect health differently in different groups. For example, Campinha-Bacote and Lee (2021) stated that Black ethnic group are at high risk for HIV/AIDS, asthma, cancer, stroke, etc. The higher prevalence of these diseases among Black ethnic group is due to the reason that they have lower socioeconomic status and poor access to healthcare services and resources. Besides, Franceschi et al. (2018) demonstrated that biological health determinants may contribute differently in different age groups with respect to gradual reduction of physical as well as mental capacity, leading to increase of developing disease and eventually death. For example, it is highlighted that the prevalence of dementia is high among older age group than younger adults. Nevertheless, environmental determinant of health develop different health outcomes in different groups. For instance, air pollution is high in urban areas and develops more negative health outcomes for people living in urban regions than rural areas.

Equity and Equality Issues associated with Each Determinant of Health

With regard to equality and equity issues, a study conducted by Gómez et al. (2021) demonstrated that lack of equal opportunities, equal access, and equitable treatment are major equality and equity issues associated with age as a biological determinant of health. Poor financial resources make older adults unable to access healthcare services essential for their improved healthcare outcomes. It is further stated by Nuru-Jeter et al. (2018) that lower socioeconomic status demonstrates inequities in lack of access to resources and issues associated with power, privileges, and control. With respect to inequalities, Moscelli et al. (2018) emphasised that people with lower socioeconomic status experience inequalities and discrimination in accessibility to quality healthcare services. In contrast, Fairburn et al. (2019) demonstrated that people living in poor income regions are likely to experience air pollution which is due to exposure to poor quality of air which is a major equity issue. In this regard, people living in poor quality of air are likely to experience inequality in accessing and receiving quality healthcare services.

Public Health Interventions for improving Health and Wellbeing of Each Determinant of Health

In order to address inequalities among older population, WHO has introduced public health intervention entitled as WHO Global Strategy and Action Plan on Aging and Health to promote health of older adults on the basis of five strategic objectives such as addressing income inequality, increasing expenditure on community and housing amenities, increasing expenditure for social protection and declining out-of pocket payments for health, and increasing public expenditure on healthcare for the elderly population (MacGuire, 2020). It is further stated that WHO introduces policies for addressing inequalities among people with lower socioeconomic status. For example, WHO has introduced “Health 21 Programme” to promote equitable opportunities for healthcare to combat social exclusion and poverty (World Health Organisation, 2019). The UK government has implemented public health policy entitled as “Air pollution: applying all our health” to address the environmental risk of air pollution to health and wellbeing of people through reducing carbon fossil fuel emissions in the environment.

Health and Health Promotions Theories addressing Health Inequities and Inequalities

According to Dover and Belon (2019), health and health promotion theories that are often used to develop public health interventions in order to address health inequities include the Health Belief Model and Social Ecological Model. In the Health Belief Model, it is postulated that particular health behaviour of an individual is likely to be reliant on their perspective of vulnerability and severity to the illness (Adesina et al., 2021). Social Ecological Model on the contrary theorises that a wide range of factors can affect health. This model is often implemented while developing public health interventions in order to address health inequalities for people with lower socioeconomic status (Wold and Mittelmark, 2018).

Conclusion

The analysis presented in this essay determined that age factor is one of the major biological determinants affecting on health outcomes of people with dementia. It is further evaluated in this essay that lower socioeconomic status may be associated with poor health outcomes due to reduced access to care and quality healthcare services. The essay also evaluated that the high level of pollution in the air increases the risk of heart disease, respiratory infections, and lung cancer. It concludes that people living in the region having poor quality of air are at high risk of adverse health and wellbeing.

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Important Notes:

This essay aims to discuss and evaluate the impact of health determinants, including biological, social, and environmental on individual as well as community health through using relevant facts, statistics, and examples.

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