WEL203A: Chronic Illness and Disability

Running Head: CHRONIC ILLNESS
Chronic Illness
Names
Institution

CHRONIC ILLNESS 2
An introduction to health sociology
Germov, J. (2009). Second opinion. An introduction to Health Psychology. Australia &New
Zealand: Oxford University Press.
From this article Germov (2009) defined class as a group of people having common
attributes or properties different from other types and kinds. He also argued that class is the main
cause of social inequality. The article plays a crucial role in enabling one to understand the levels
of class, which the author classifies them into three namely: upper, middle and working classes.
Upper class refers to a group of people who own resources and capital and employs workers to
make profit for them. They don’t take part in the daily operations of the businesses but have
access to company’s profits.
Middle class refers to a group of people who possess some skills and qualification which
enables them to work in better working conditions compared to unskilled ones (Rosalind, 2016).
They may include small business owners, health professionals, self-employed and also teachers.
Working class consist of a group of both skilled and unskilled manual workers who get paid to
exercise their labor powers. According to Shalene (2017), working class people are mostly
affected by chronic diseases and also experience health inequalities. This is because most of
them are exposed to risk working conditions, poor nutrition and stress.
According to Ryan (2015), Class can also lead to health inequalities. Australians who had
low incomes, unemployed and lacked resources had high chances of getting chronic diseases
such as diabetes, cancer, depression and heart diseases. This means that these people were
affected by illness, high death rates and short life expectancy. The existence of social inequality

CHRONIC ILLNESS 3
in health outcome shows that there is something causing unequal distribution of healthy in
Australia and this is not fair so actions should be taken.
According to Jennifer (2012), there are ways in which a country can address health
inequalities between its citizens. One of these ways is by educating individuals on health
enhancing behaviors. This would enable the individuals get to know what kind of disease they
are suffering from and also help them take the measures required. This would also include
educating them on how to avoid some of the health hazards which brings risk to their lives. Also,
improving living and working conditions can assist in controlling health inequalities. This is
done through making easy access to nutrition food, safe work places and cheap recreation
services.
Moreover, educating disadvantaged people on how to maintain their income to overcome
long term poverty can help reduce health inequalities. This is because most people tend to use
their money on things which are not essentials for life and fail to save for more important use in
the future. This education would make them prioritize their needs and avoid the problems
associated with poverty like being discriminated when receiving some services such as health.
Germov argues that, people should not only focus on educating people on how to use money but
focus on making facilities and health services available to them because most people fail to leave
classy lifestyles due to lack of money.