Gender as a Social Determinant of Health in Sarina Region

This paper discusses the impact of gender as a social determinant of health in Sarina Region, Australia. It explores the challenges posed by gender-related causes of illness and inequality in the region and suggests interventions to address them.

Running Head: GENDER AS A SOCIAL DETERMINANT OF HEALTH IN SARINA
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Gender as a social determinant of health in Sarina Region
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Gender as social determinant of health in Sarina Region
Introduction
Gender is considered a social health determinant, however, gender per se is determined,
in part, by psychological and biological variables. It is a multi-sided construct consisting of
social behaviors, roles, attitudes, as well as social environmental factors like hormonal, physical,
and biological features. However, the term sex and gender are frequently used interchangeably
even though biological psychosocial features inevitably differ (Davies & Bennett, 2016). Beyond
the biological variations, gender norms, behaviors as well as roles have an influence on how
male, females access services of health as well as how healthcare systems behave to their various
needs. The variation and normally unequal abilities of females and males to protect as well as
enhance their medical need recognition so that effective health interventions can be planned
(Sobers-Grannum et al. 2015). Global organizations like the World Health Organization have
recognized that gender is a vital health determinant in majorly various dimensions; inequality in
gender results in health risks for females worldwide as well as coming up with solutions to
address gender roles and norms results in an effective comprehension of how the social structure
of identity as well as unstable relations of power between women as well as men impact the
risks, health outcomes and health-seeking features of women as well as men in various social and
age groups (Manandhar, Hawkes, Buse, Nosrati & Magar, 2018).
The Australian ministry of health as well as its health partners have currently started to
give attention to comprehending dimensions of gender in health systems to be more able to give
solutions to gender-linked causes of inequality and illness to help in contributing to the
development of effective as well as adequate health programs and policies in the health sector

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(Díaz-Reviriego, Fernández-Llamazares, Salpeteur, Howard & Reyes-García, 2016). This paper
will critically discuss the gender as a health determinant in Sarina town, Australia. The paper
will discuss gender impact on the delivery of health care services to the people of Sarina and the
various interventions that can be put in place to address the challenges posed by gender-related
causes of illness and inequality in the region.
Background information
While the subject of health of women is limited to women, both women and men are
subject to health impacts of gender. More specifically, since the deleterious effects of gender
appear to burden females disproportionately, numerous studies on gender as a health determinant
that have begun to appear is usually concerned with women (Manandhar, Hawkes, Buse, Nosrati
& Magar, 2018). It should be noted that at the level of a population, in numerous nations of the
globe, women have more restricted access to, as well as less control over vital resources and over
their lives and bodies relative to men. Because gender is a degree of social as well as genetic
variations, it is probably that the inequalities in health between women and men mirror both sex-
linked social as well as biological factors. In relation to social factors, health scientists usually
pose various hypothesis to account for the inequalities which are caused by gender differences.
The hypothesis of differential exposure states that females report greater levels of health
challenges due to their decreased access to social and material conditions of life that improve
health, as well as the higher access linked to their gender as well as the marital roles. The
hypothesis of differential variability states that females report degree of health challenges since
they react differently relative to the males to the behavioral, psychosocial and material conditions
which enhance health.

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The hypothesis of differential exposure; empirical research studies have reported that
female occupy various physical locations relative to male, that is, women are less likely to be
given employment opportunities, operate in various settings, as well as are more likely to have
meager levels of income, more likely to end up being a single parent and do domestic jobs
relative to men (Kilcullen, Swinbourne & Cadet, 2016). There are numerous variations in gender
in experience to different lifestyle behaviors with males more likely relative to females to take
alcohol, become overweight, smoke and have unbalanced diet, while females are more likely to
be inactive biophysically than men. Moreover, women report greater degree of health challenges
since they are exposed ti greater degree of obligations and demands in their social roles.
Hypothesis on differential variability; according to various analyses whereby differences in
gender in the influence of predictors of health are evaluated, men and women have been found to
differ in vulnerability in certain level of degree in terms of social determinant of health.
Moreover, the moderating effect of gender is usually dependent on specific determinants
(Hussain, Katzenellenbogen, Sanfilippo, Murray & Thompson, 2018). Particularly, full-time
working, high income as well as taking care of the family are more vital health care predictors
for women relative men. Furthermore, the impacts of stress can be embodied and experienced by
men and women in various ways.
Statistics of Sarina Area
Thera are about 2276 people according to the census conducted in 2016. Out of this
number, there are about 47.6% male and female about 52.4% while the median age of the whole
population is 28 years. In the region, there are 511 families with the average children per family
especially two for families with children whole 1.1 for all the families. There is a total of 817 of
all the private dwellings. The average individual per household is 3.8, the medial weekly income

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household is $1.15, the median per month repayment of the mortgage is zero dollars, median per
week rent is $75 and the mean motor vehicles per household is about 0.8. The most occupants of
the land in the area are Aboriginals (71.8%), English (5.4%), Australians (5.8%), Scottish (1.6%)
and Irish (1.6%).
Gender as a social determinant in Sarina region
The people of Sarina region especially the aboriginal people view health from a global
view that is vitally different from the biological model (Askew et al. 2016). Comprehending this
variant way of viewing health and life is critical for offering health care for the population of the
sarina people.. A gendered view of health among, for instance, the indigenous people of Sarina
acknowledges that wellbeing and health can have various implications for men and women
(O’Neil, Scovelle, Milner, Kavanagh & O’Neil, 2018). According to the World Health
Organization, the aim of gendered health is to achieve the greatest degree of health putting up
health policies which to recognize that both men and women, owing to the variation in biological
structure as well as their roles in gender, have various needs, opportunities, and obstacles
(Milner, King, LaMontagne, Bentley & Kavanagh, 2018).
In this paper, the term gender has been used to reflect the various status and roles
ascribed to individuals throughout cultural and social determination. However, the paper has also
recognized that sex is usually a status which is biologically determined by features like hormonal
profiles, chromosomes, as well as external and internal sex organs. It should be noted that
socialized and gendered behaviors constitute identity in gender as well as determines gender
roles. Traditionally aboriginal men and women in Sarina have held various gendered roles (Aung
et al. 2018). Even though community groups conventionally had similar ties of traditions which

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connected the people together, gendered realities influenced particular interests and roles of men
and women. Sarina people, especially the women had business according to customs, cultural
practices as well as regulations shared among females and taught to younger generations by their
elders. Gender has remained a debatable subject in Australia and is defined as a socialized
circumstance which depends in the customs and traditions. In Sarina region, women usually
seem to have certain biological advantages relative to men, yet any biological advantage that
results to longer life expectancy of women are cancelled out by their social and cultural
disadvantages. Gender is considered as a relational health determinant since it changes the way
in which we consider any of the social health determinant, however, the effectiveness of gender
as a concept relies on how we comprehend it.
How gender as social determinant of health interacts with upstream, midstream and downstream
factors in public health framework in Sarina region?
In Sarina region, the upstream factors include economy which is hugely supported by
agriculture (sugarcane growing, cattle grazing), and coal loading plants. In this categories
women and men interact differently with Sarina’s economy. Most of the productive activities in
the region are normally undertaken by men while women usually engage in subsistence activities
which are not the backbone of the economy. In the employment, quite a large number of men
relative to women have gainful employment opportunities (Stewart, Sanson, Eades & Fitzgerald,
2012). This makes women become marginalized as cultural and gender roles demands that
women should have only domestic jobs in the region. Since most of the people employed in the
region are from the coal mining plants, statistics have indicated that men are more employed in
the coal mining industries due to their biological and physical structure which supports
undertaking energy intensive jobs which biologically and physically cannot be undertaken by

GENDER AS A SOCIAL DETERMINANT OF HEALTH IN SARINA REGION
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women. Access to education is usually limited to women as dictated by the cultural norms in the
region. Therefore, women are not cognizant of the various causes of preventable diseases
(Andersen, Williamson, Fernando, Wright & Redman, 2017). Since there are no public college
for individuals who want to pursue tertiary education in the village for both men and women,
vital information and research institutions cannot be accessed by the people of Sarina.
In the midstream factors, both genders interact differently with such factors evn though
equally every gender has been affected by colonial laws and policies. The aboriginal population
especially children were separated from their families which caused untold misery and suffering
among them. Their mental and physical health were affected as they were opposed to the
assimilation laws introduced by the colonialists which were later adopted by the federal
government (Young et al. 2015). The laws of assimilation stated that aboriginal population had
to denounce their culture and customs and adopt ‘white supremacists’ culture. Thus, their
indigenous knowledge on health was highly impacted. Since the Australia was a British colony,
aboriginal women and men have been subject to genocidal practices and laws.
In the downstream, sex variations exist in both mortality and morbidity outcomes in
Sarina region. In the region, women usually report more psychological distress, physical illness
as well as psychiatrist symptoms relative to men; however, women usually liver longer than men.
Numerous have assumed that the sex variations exist across culture and time as well as solely
and consistently have biological causes. Nevertheless, the sex variation deaths are higher, lesser
or reversed depending on the culture that is evaluated (Graham et al. 2015). For instance, the sex
variation in incidence of cancer in Sarina region is determined by socioeconomic and cultural
factors as mirrored in rates of women verses men disadvantage for incidence of cancer as well as
life expectancy within various parts of the region. Thus, it is clear that sex variation in mortality

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and morbidity are not influenced largely by biology. Most of the common causes of the illness
among the aboriginals staying in Sarina are circulatory disease, neoplasms entailing cancer, as
well as external causes entailing suicide, accidental poisoning, accidental drowning, and
transport accidents. These high levels of disease especially among women in the region is linked
with a wide range of economic and social determinants that arise from contemporary and
conventional oppression, racism and colonization.
Recommendations
The state and local government of Sarina should ensure that affirmative action should be
taken in every health care organization so that gender-based inequalities between men and
women are resolved. Moreover, the government must ensure that tertiary learning institutions
which are missing in the area to be made available for every men and women in the region
especially the aboriginal population (Kirkham, Hoon, Rumbold & Moore, 2018). Nurses
working in the region must understand the structure and elements of culture between the
aboriginal and non-indigenous members of the Sarina region (Angell et al. 2018). social and
economic factors like healthcare services and employment opportunities must be made equal for
both gender and race in the region. it is vital for the government to address the poverty level of
the aboriginal population as well as the social determinants of health including gender,
socioeconomic factors and colonization.
Conclusion
Gender and sex usually determine the level and degree in which men and women access
health care services especially in Sarina region. Sarina region in Australia has diverse

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population, that is, aboriginal and non-indigenous population, therefore, it is vital if the state
government bridges the gap between the population and between men and women.

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