Health Inequalities in UK: Causes, Impacts, and Government Approaches

Contemporary Debates

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................1
Health inequalities in UK............................................................................................................1
Ways in which health inequalities affect people in UK..............................................................2
Approaches taken by government to reduce these health inequalities........................................3
Recommendations of ways in which these inequalities can be reduced and overall health
outcome for people can be enhanced...........................................................................................4
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Health inequalities can be defined as a kind of unfair or unavoidable treatment or
differences in health of overall population (Collishaw and et.al., 2019). Health inequality is an
area of concern which is present because of presence of differences within different groups of
society. It basically arises because of conditions in which an individual lives or overall physical
condition of an individual. It is important to address these inequalities presence in health because
it can impact overall physical and mental health and wellbeing of an individual and health care
outcome of such people can also get impacted. This essay will lay emphasis upon health
inequalities as a major area of concern in UK and ways in which government approaches are
addressing these inequalities in order to be reduced or diminished. In this essay, overview of
presence of health inequalities in UK will be provided, its impact on people, government
measures to reduce it and future recommendations to diminish it completely has been focused
upon.
MAIN BODY
Health inequalities in UK
Health inequalities in UK is one of the main areas of concern in UK because of which
health of overall population of UK is getting impacted, and differences between individuals or
groups within society is increasing continuously (Currie and Bray, 2019). Main reason because
of which these inequalities in UK are increasing due to race, age, living conditions, work,
environment etc. it is important to address this issue and reduce inequalities in health so that
overall physical, mental and emotional health and wellbeing of people is not impacted.
Health inequalities exist in range of dimensions and characteristics. First is socio
economic status and deprivation. It is one of the main dimensions on the basis of which
inequalities in UK are increasing. This dimension consists of characteristics such as low income,
unemployment, individuals living in deprived areas. Another dimension due to which
inequalities exist are protected characteristics of an individual that includes: race, sex, disability,
sexual orientation (Rougeaux and et.al., 2017). Another dimension is vulnerable groups of
society that includes: migrants, travelling community people and many more. Last dimension on
the basis of which people face inequality is geographical location that includes urban and rural.
to creates the policies of social protection that influences of life disturbing events such as Covid
19, more facilities regarding to cure this type of disease.