Essay about Cardiovascular Disease: Annotated Bibliography

This information is however a great place to start to see if a region does in fact tend to be more obese, or if it simply a County wide pandemic. If a region is found to be more obese more data gathering could then be conducted to answer such questions. Therefore as shown for this given data analysis the data gathering methodology is advantageous because of its ease of use and presentation, and also has a disadvantage of being to broad.

Although many individuals are uncertain about the increasing statistics associated with obesity, more than seventy percent of men and virtually sixty-two percent of women within the United States adult population are overweight or obese (Wilmore, Costill, & Kenney). Obesity refers to the condition of having an excessive amount of body fat. If an individual’s amount of body fat becomes too excessive, he/she is at a much greater risk of developing life-altering diseases such as heart failure, hypertension, type II diabetes, cancer, gallbladder disease, osteoarthritis, etc. (Wilmore, et al., 2008).

Socioeconomic status is a predictive measure of health that has been widely used in the literature (Kroenke, 2008). It

Socioeconomic status (SES) encompasses amount of income and wealth, level of educational obtainment, type of occupation. It is usually a predicator of many physical and psychological health outcomes and is linked to a variety of health problems, such as low birthweight, cardiovascular disease, hypertension, diabetes, and cancer. There is a well-established and researched correlation between high SES leading to better health outcomes and that lower SES results in poorer health outcomes. SES does directly affect health, but rather serves as a proxy for other determinants by establishing and maintaining inequality through differential exposures to conditions that have a more immediate impact on health (i.e. environmental exposures, behavior/lifestyle choices, stress, health care, etc.).

Cardiovascular disease is one of the major health problem that most of the countries are facing today and one of such countries is Australia. It is estimated that about 1 million of Australian population is affected by cardiovascular diseases and is among the leading cause of death in Australia ("Department of Health | Cardiovascular disease", 2016). It is also observed that the Aboriginal population of Australia is more likely to develop cardiovascular disease than other Australians ("Department of Health | Cardiovascular disease", 2016). In order to examine the health issue such as cardiovascular disease among Aboriginal men and women using social

Social determinants of cardiovascular diseases are found largely outside the healthcare systems, social factors of cause-and-effect work with traditional risk factors within the health care system to determine ones overall health.

From the data we can see the average BMI and the percentage of obese individuals increased with income for men while it decreased for women. For example, for men the prevalence of obesity increased from 19.48% for those with an average household income of less than $10,000, to 26.09% for those with $80,000 or more; while for women with similar income groups, we find a substantial decrease in the obesity rate from 26.71% to 17.38%. from the data we can extrapolate that the mean BMI and the overall prevalence of obesity are relatively higher among men than women. For men, the mean BMI and the overall prevalence of obesity are 27.57 and 24.83%, respectively. The corresponding values for women are 26.29% and

Crawford, D., Jeffery, R.W., Ball, K. & Brug, J. (Eds.). (2010). Obesity Epidemiology: From Aetiology to Public Health (2nd ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Health and social class have always been closely linked. Recent research has shown that the gap between social classes is not only widening in terms of annual income but also in terms of health. Social class affects a person's physical health, longevity, and ability and access to appropriate nutrition and medical care. People who have received more education and have a higher income are less likely to have and die of chronic diseases, such as heart disease, strokes, diabetes, and cancer. While individuals of lower social-economic class tend to experience more health issues, they have less access to healthcare of appropriate quality compared to individuals of higher social-economic classes. This is because there are higher health risk factors

The range of personal, social, economic, and environmental factors that influence health status are known as determinants of health. Social determinants of health reflect the social factors and physical conditions of the environment in which people are born, live, learn, play, work, and age. According to Florida Public Health, Heart disease was the second leading cause of death in 2012, accounting for41, 643 deaths. The heart disease age-adjusted death rate per 100,000 populations decreased between 1990 and 2012 from 286.5 to 155.3. Heart disease was the leading cause of death among individuals 85 years or older, accounting for 30.0percent of deaths in this age group.

Summit County has several factors leading to poor access to comprehensive, quality health care. The poverty rate is 16%, the unemployment rate is 7.2%, and the uninsured rate is 14.1% (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2012). There is also a high obesity rate of 28.4% . (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2012). According to Milio's framework for prevention (2014) the people that make up these statistics show that lower income, uninsured individuals have a poor health status compared to employed, insured individuals. Therefore, they are at a higher risk for cardiovascular disease. It is also interesting to mention that in Nancy Milio's research she found that most people, whether low, middle, or upper class, will choose the easiest option available the majority of the time (Nies & McEwen, 2015). People making unhealthy choices such as smoking, abuse of alcohol and/or drugs, eating poorly, and remaining physically inactive, pose the greatest risk to heart disease. These lifestyle choices lead to obesity, hypertension, diabetes, and high cholesterol which are the main causes of cardiovascular

Crimmins, Hayward, Ueda Saito and Kim in there journal article give statistical data on heart disease and death in both women and men (2008). This article states “37 percent of men and 27 percent of women over the age 65 report having a heart condition” (Crimmins et al., 2008). Crimmins research addresses the many differences in men with coronary artery disease compared to women with coronary artery disease. The study noted that men have a higher mortality rate from heart disease than do women (Crimmins et al., 2008). This article also notes that “40-50 percent of postmenopausal women will develop heart disease” (Crimmins et al., 2008). Crimmins and colleges noted men develop heart disease 5 to 10 years earlier in life than do women ( 2008). Evidence suggests that women who are hospitalized for cardiovascular issues are less likely to “receive certain types of drugs and diagnostic and treatment procedures” (Crimmins et al., 2008). Low socio-economic status and poor educational levels also have a marked effect on men and women’s knowledge of cardiovascular disease and the timing of when they seek treatment (Hemingway, 2007).

James, W. P. (2008). The epidemiology of obesity: the size of the problem. Journal of Internal Medicine, 336-352. Retrieved from http://eds.a.ebscohost.com.library.gcu.edu:2048/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=9ede2d6d-4d02-42e9-aff7-dd9b2486a3c3%40sessionmgr4004&vid=8&h

Socio-economic class or socio-economic status (SES) may refer to mixture of various factors such as poverty, occupation and environment. It is a way of measuring the standard and quality of life of individuals and families in society using social and economic factors that affect health and wellbeing ( Giddens and Sutton, 2013). Cockerham (2007 p75) argues: ‘Social class or socioeconomic status (SES) is the strongest predictor of health, disease causation and longevity in medical sociology.’ Research in the 1990s, (Drever and Whitehead, 1997) found out that people in higher SES are generally healthier, and live longer than those in lower SES.

The main social problem is the higher prevalence of heart disease among the poor than the non-poor. This social problem has lead me to the following research question: in the United States, how is poverty associated with the prevalence of heart disease? To answer this question I will define heart disease, why it is an issue needing our attention, and whom it specifically affects. I will then delve into the many social mechanisms that facilitate this trend and show how they all work together to create an environment in which the poor are more likely to deal with heart disease than the non-poor. The mechanisms involved are individual and institutional, meaning that they operate and would have to be addressed at either the individual or institutional level. The individual focused mechanisms include smoking, physical inactivity, obesity, factors from early in life, and mental factors. The institution focused ones include quality of healthcare and lack of access to