The Social Determinants Of Health

The concept of health promotion has emerged with the increasing realisation in society that our health is one of our most valuable personal assets, as well as an asset for society (Crafter, 1997). The Health Promotion Agency (2008) describes health promotion as a process enabling people to

Health promotion is especially important when trying to tackle obesity. Health promotion is the process of enabling people to increase control over their health and its detriments, herby improving their lifestyle. (WHO, 2005). It encourages healthy living and supplies education about the body and how to keep it healthy. (Naidoo and

The World Health Organisation (WHO) Ottawa Charter defined health promotion as “the process of enabling people to increase control over, and to improve, their health. To reach a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, an individual or group must be able to

The roots of the tree suggest the requirement of understanding the conditions that conclude health and ill health; biological inheritance, physical environment, cultural, social, political and economic circumstances. The understanding of who, when and where is affected enables possible interventions to be identified. The trunk of the tree illustrates the importance of organisational commitment to improving health. Lastly, the branches describe key areas for health promotion activity and those elements of the setting that contribute to health. Health promotion works by the belief system. The belief system is when an individual is experiencing change in their health. The belief system is made up of many positive factors such as; health, aesthetic gain, benefits to family, pariah status and financial gain. This belief system can be used in many health issues such as overcoming obesity. There are many positives for overcoming obesity which are; reducing the chance of getting illnesses/diseases, heart disease, infertility, type 2 diabetes, some cancers and strokes. The aesthetic gain It would be that people would lose weight more and then would look/be thinner. Benefits to family The benefits to the family would be that by them being healthier the rest of the family may be influenced to start being healthy to avoid the risk of developing any illness/disease.

According to Dennis Raphael, the conditions that overcome lifestyle activities such as daily smoking, physical activity, and eating habits are living and working conditions an individual endures daily (2016). In Canada, and in many countries just like it, focuses a lot on the biomedical approach which looks at treatment of disease, rather than prevention and the behavioural approach that is every individualized and its main target is to prevent disease through cultivating a lifestyle that encourages activities that work towards it (Raphael, 2016). These approaches aren’t the most effective because people continue to deteriorate as they require to work multiple precarious jobs that have a very poor condition and still not being able to live their fullest potential due to several barriers such as low wages (Raphael, 2016). This has a lot to do with how a society distributes social and economic resources among its citizens which shape the overall health and well-being of these people (Raphael, 2016). The chapter presents various frameworks that correlate with each other to influence health outcomes which all have a lot in common (Raphael, 2016). Such as the materialist framework discusses how the social determinants of health impact individual’s health outcomes by looking at

“Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander people have a greater amount of disadvantage and significantly more health problems than the non-Aboriginal & Torres strait Islander population in Australia”

There are numerous definitions of the word health, and health promotion, which can be defined by the (WHO) world health organisation (1984)

The determinants of health as stated in the report are social and nonmedcial factors. They are related to “employment income, housing, transportation, child care, education, discrimination, and the quality of the places where people live, work, learn and play, which influence health” (Braveman et al., pg. 14). The reason why they are considered social determinants is because there are guidelines created by the government in which it affects the quality of life a person has. As well as what may be accessible to them based on the “social policy”; “presumably because the provision of medical care is the responsibility of social policy” (Braveman et al. , pg. 14).

The Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion, 1986, defined Health Promotion as being ‘the process of enabling people to increase control over, and to improve, their health’. There are three key approaches to HP. The first one looks at population subgroups. It is well documented that not all cultures view health as a prime goal. For example, an addict will chose to facilitate his habit over basic sanitary and physical necessities. The ‘population subgroup’ approach looks to focus on targeted solutions for smaller groups

Definition of Health Promotion is increasing awareness, indentifying alternatives and influencing attitudes of the people, so that they can make an informed decision and change their behaviors to achieve an optimal level of mental, physical and social health. Health promotion is also defined as the process of empowering people to improve and take control of their health to optimize the quality of their lives. Ennis et al (2006) has explained health promotion as emotional, cognitive and behavioral endeavor to promote well being and health of the people. Davis (1995) expresses a deeper perspective in which preventive health science, social environment,

Health promotion is a process, which encourages individuals to increase their knowledge through information and individual choice to recognize and improve their health (WHO, 1986).

Health promotion is the process of enabling people to increase control over, and to improve their health and wellbeing (Maggie & Scaffa, 2013). It has three key strategies including advocate, enable, and mediate (Tucker, Vanderloo, Irwin, Mandich & Bossers, 2014). Health promotion is through these three strategies that aim to achieve the five actions of the Ottawa Charter which include build healthy public policy; create supportive environments; strength community action; develop personal skills; and reorient health services (Tucker, Vanderloo, Irwin, Mandich & Bossers, 2014). In addition, the values of the health promotion include empowerment; equity and social justice; health as a human right; health as a holistic concept; and respect for cultural diversity (Tucker, Vanderloo, Irwin, Mandich & Bossers, 2014). There are a wide ranges of specific interventions, such as back education program for school children to improve back posture,

Health promotion has emerged in the last decade as an important force to improve both quality and quantity of people’s lives. Sometimes termed ‘the new public health’ it seeks to support and encourage a participative social movement that enables individuals and communities to take control over their own health. (Bunton,R & Macdonald,G 1992)

Social determinants of health are social, economic and physical factors that affect the health of individuals in any given population. There are fourteen social determinants of health but Income is perhaps the most important of these because it shapes living conditions, influences health related behaviors, and determines food security. In Canada, people with lower incomes are more susceptible to disease/ conditions, higher mortality rate, decreased life expectancy and poorer perceived health than people with high incomes. In numerous Canadian studies and reports, there has been more emphasis on health being based on an individual’s characteristics, choices and behaviours, rather than the role that income plays as a social determinant of health. Although Canada has one of the highest income economies in the world and is comprised of a free health care system, many low income families are a burden on the system because of the physical and mental health issues influenced by income insecurity. Low income individuals are heavier users of health care services because they have lower levels of health and more health problems than do people with higher incomes. This essay will address income as a social determinant of health in three key sections: what is known on the issue, why the issue is important and how can health and public policies address the issue. The main theme that runs through the essay is the income related health inequalities among low income groups compared to

The World health Organisation says Health promotion is a method using an assortment of social and environmental interventions to support individuals in managing and improving their own health. (WHO, 2016).