Disparities in Health and Health Care, Essay Example

A complex interplay of various forces such as health-related behaviors, physical environment, and access to and quality of healthcare profoundly impact human health and health outcomes. Most significantly, social and economic environments that people grow, live in, work, and learn collective determine health and health outcomes. Structural socioeconomic inequalities play a role in whether or not an individual can afford to seek health, especially for minority women who are pregnant. Socioeconomic determinants of health include income, employment, family support, education level, and community support. Socioeconomic factors that impact individuals living in socioeconomically disadvantaged communities are manifold and often yield poor health outcomes because the lack of resources in those areas translate into the lack of access to necessary obstetric services for pregnant mothers. For example, a teenage mother would most likely give birth prematurely to a baby that is severely underweight because the mother most likely grew up in a household that ate high-fat meals with little to no vegetables and fruits consumption. Domestic violence and substance abuse was most likely pervasive, and the young mother works for minimum wage. she lacked access to any family planning services, which is why she went through with the unplanned pregnancy. Her employer did not provide its workers health insurance, and the young mother was constantly exposed to second-hand smoke. When her pregnancy test tested positive, the young mother sought obstetrical services in order to terminate the pregnancy, but there were no services available nearby. As a result, the young mother suffered from a variety of pregnancy-related problems until the premature birth of her baby. Such a scenario demonstrates who socioeconomic factors impacts who has access to obstetrics services and who does not. Often, endemically poor communities are comprised of non-white families who cannot afford necessary healthcare.

Sociopolitical factors that impact human health and health outcomes are both at the societal and individual levels in addition to power relations between various groups. Discrimination predicated on race and gender and the redistribution of wealth are two types of this kind of socio-political factor. Democratic principles related to accountability in healthcare, fairness, and informed consent are also socio-political factors at the societal level. At the individual level, patient-related outcomes including quality of life, work opportunities, social integration, and family/marital life. There remains endemic flaws within the healthcare system because of ubiquitous discriminatory attitudes towards female minorities within the field of obstetrics.

References

Baldwin, D., (January 31, 2003). “Disparities in Health and Health Care:Focusing Efforts to Eliminate Unequal Burdens”. Online Journal of Issues in Nursing. Vol. 8 No. 1.

Los Angeles County of Public Health. (2013). Social determinants of health: How social and economic factors affect health. County of Los Angeles Public Health. Retrieved September 9, 2015 from http://publichealth.lacounty.gov/epi/docs/SocialD_Final_Web.pdf