Health Inequality and Ill Health: Principles, Strategies, and Demographics in Public Health Practices

This report discusses the concept of ill health and principles which lead to wider health inequalities. It evaluates public health practices and challenges faced in health promotional aspects. The report also covers demographics and epidemiology in public health practices and theories of health promotion in professional roles.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Table of Contents.............................................................................................................................2
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................2
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................3
Principles of health inequality and ill health...............................................................................3
Health promotion strategies and principles.................................................................................5
Demographics and epidemiology in public health practices.......................................................8
Theories of health promotion in professional role.......................................................................9
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................13
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INTRODUCTION
Health inequality is defined as the difference or variations in distribution of health care
resources or health status among various population groups (Patel and et.al., 2020). Health
inequalities are highly undesirable and unfair as they can affect the quality of life and social gaps
but they can be reduced or managed by appropriate government policies and health promotional
campaigns. Health inequalities grow in society as individual’s age, work, live and grow. Health
inequalities can be observed in terms of health status, access to care services, service quality and
experience, behavioural risk other health determinants. This report will discuss the concept of ill
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health and principles which leads to wider health inequalities. It will also provide an evaluation
of public health practices and challenges faced in health promotional aspects.
MAIN BODY
Principles of health inequality and ill health
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Disease is defined as an abnormality which can affect physical or mental condition of an
individual and thus it needs curing measures. Trauma, cancer, infections or tissue degeneration
can be considered as examples of diseases. On the other hand illness may accompany any disease
and demand for suitable management techniques. The feelings such as weakness, distress,
dysfunction or pain are part of illness and their progression can be measured with treatment. The
illness can be greatly influenced by non-disease factors such as beliefs, emotions or cultural
aspects of health care system and individual (Moreno-Llamas, García-Mayor and la Cruz-
Sánchez, 2021). When these irregularities are not managed equally or uniformly by different
individuals or even groups then it leads to unavoidable as well as unfair differences in health
outcomes. It is very crucial for the service providers as well as government agencies to document
health inequality so that more productive health promotions and interventions can be developed
and employed. One of the key reasons which lead to health inequality is socio economic
differences. Unemployment, poverty, lack of education or specific beliefs about management and
treatment of diseases can affect the way in which diseases are perceived and treated. This
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different is main cause of leading to health inequality. Certain characteristics such as disability,
orientation, sex, and race or age factor also cause health inequalities (Kim and Kim, 2018). The
economic or infrastructural disparity can also bring health inequality on basis of geographical
basis. It has been also observed that some groups or societies known as inclusion groups are
more vulnerable to particular health conditions which enhance this gap. For instance individuals
with alcohol addiction or family history of diabetes are more prone to development of disease.
Thus such groups need more precautions and monitoring for management. If these inequalities
are not addressed or considered, then this can affect the mortality rates and quality of life in
society. Health and well being are essential aspects for development of society as well as human
evolution.
Health promotion strategies and principles
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Health promotional campaigns aim at creating awareness among people about health
inequalities and diseases. Effective campaigns have well defined and clear interventions which
can be accepted and understood by communities (Honnudóttir and et.al., 2021). They also
consider the cultural aspect so that people can distinguish between contradictory practices and
actual intervention. The lack of accurate information is also one of the reasons that people does
not give efforts to manage their disease and thus it leads to wide gap between mortality rate. For
instance many people used to have belief that they cannot develop diabetes or if they have
developed diabetes then it cannot be managed. However promotional campaigns have helped to
aware people that with proper life style changes, regular exercise, routine checkups and physical
as well as psychological counselling can help them live a normal life without any difficulties. For
achieving such purpose health promotional strategies always include the community beliefs and
short term goals. The clear description of goals as well as details of existing service providers
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can make it very easy for the people to understand the underlying situations. Promotion
campaigns can improve health outcomes only when they are successful at providing supportive
and interactive health care environment (Ilinca, Rodrigues and Schmidt, 2017). It must be
assured that system level services are accessible to each and every individual without any social
or economic restrictions or barriers. Another important strategy which can be used for improved
public health is to develop awareness about disability and sensitivity towards health inequality or
gaps. For this purpose sensitivity trainings are needed not at professional level but also at
community level. Like people with disability are treated in very unfair manner and this can have
more complications in management of chronic diseases. However positive response from
professionals as well as family members can result in quick and improved service quality.
Another important aspect which often becomes the reason for failure of health promotion
campaign is that some promotion strategies do not consider the beliefs of community. It makes a
communication gap between professionals and thus a conflict of interest is created between
different stakeholders. It must be eliminated by respecting the beliefs and autonomy of others by
incorporating necessary health care legislations and practices (Barnard-Kelly and Cherñavvsky,
2020).
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Demographics and epidemiology in public health practices
Epidemiology is the concept which describes and defines the relationship between
disease and health associated factors within population. Thus it helps in understanding the trends,
distribution, risk factors or causes of any diseases so that appropriate preventive and control
measures can be taken and public health can be improved. Epidemiology is also an effective
measure of determining the goals and elements of health care policies so that diseases can be
eradicated and eliminated. Epidemiological methods are used for disease surveillance,
investigation of outbreaks, and identification of risk factors so that its prevalence in specific
population can be understood and control measures can be determined. With the help of field
investigation epidemiology is also helpful in determining the linkage of disease with other
factors. For instance it is estimated that nearly 7% of UK population is living with diabetes and
more than 3000 children are expected to develop diabetes every year on account of unhealthy
diet and parental history (Thomas and et.al., 2017). Thus analysis of this information can help
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social care service providers to initiate programs and policies which can prevent this increasing
number of people getting affected by disease.
Similarly demographic information refers to the knowledge of size and characteristics
and how population characteristics vary in relation to migration, mortality and fertility. Public
health cannot be improved without infrastructure support or easy accessibility. Thus
demographics are used to estimate the size and structure of population which can be vulnerable
with the disease so that care planning can be developed and managed in accordance to the
expected size of population. Demographic data is helpful for policy makers to incorporate or to
even generate new systems which are capable of meeting the need of changing and diversifying
population.
Theories of health promotion in professional role
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For addressing health inequalities place based approaches are used in which instead of
promoting health for any particular disease, significant changes are made at entire population
level (Valabhji and et.al., 2020). The health determinants affect wider groups and specifically
social aspect and thus it is necessary that protective and psychosocial factors must be considered
for health promotion. Health promotion campaigns cannot achieve success without engaging
communities. Lack of cooperation and communication between communities, service providers
and patient is one of the reasons which cause mistrust and inequality. Thus promotion polities
used to work in collaboration and partnership with the entire population so that community
centred approaches can be deployed to create greater awareness and trust in health care systems.
The economic and social disparities widen the health inequality gap. Thus to overcome that gap
health promotions also focus on issues related to resource availability. The government agencies
work with various social welfare organisations to ensure that health services are accessible to
every individual. For instance NHS England has diabetes prevention and awareness programs
which used to educated people about the prevention as well as treatment of diabetes (Rodrigues
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and et.al., 2020). When individuals have awareness about health care policies or systems then
they find it easy to access them and it can reduce the inequalities or gap. Health issues also
address the economic and education barriers which introduces health gaps. Promotional
campaigns integrate the common practices and beliefs to create awareness among individuals
about responsibilities of professional so that they are accepted and approached by people.
CONCLUSION
From the above discussion it can be concluded that health inequalities must be analysed
and addressed by improved health promotion policies. Such policies must consider various
dimensions such as social and economic factors, geographical factors, social exclusions as well
as special characteristics like ethnicity, disability or gender. It has been also evaluated from the
report that while implementing health promotion campaigns professionals must also take
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demographics and epidemiology into consideration. The health issues must can addressed only
when professionals are integrated with wider community practices.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Barnard-Kelly, K.D. and Cherñavvsky, D., 2020. Social inequality and diabetes: a
commentary. Diabetes Therapy, 11(4), pp.803-811.
Honnudóttir and et.al., 2021. Social inequality in type 2 diabetes mellitus in the Faroe Islands: a
cross-sectional study. Scandinavian Journal of Public Health,
p.14034948211013267.
Ilinca, S., Rodrigues, R. and Schmidt, A.E., 2017. Fairness and eligibility to long-term care: An
analysis of the factors driving inequality and inequity in the use of home care for
older Europeans. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public
Health, 14(10), p.1224.
Kim, J.I. and Kim, G., 2018. Effects on inequality in life expectancy from a social ecology
perspective. BMC public health, 18(1), pp.1-8.
Moreno-Llamas, A., García-Mayor, J. and la Cruz-Sánchez, D., 2021. Gender inequality is
associated with gender differences and women participation in physical
activity. Journal of Public Health.
Patel, J.A. and et.al., 2020. Poverty, inequality and COVID-19: the forgotten vulnerable. Public
health, 183, p.110.
Rodrigues, A.M. and et.al., 2020. Stakeholders’ perceptions and experiences of the National
Health Service diabetes prevention programme in England: qualitative study with
service users, intervention providers and deliverers, commissioners and
referrers. BMC health services research, 20(1), pp.1-13.
Thomas, C. and et.al., 2017. Assessing the potential return on investment of the proposed UK
NHS diabetes prevention programme in different population subgroups: an
economic evaluation. BMJ open, 7(8), p.e014953.
Valabhji, J., and et.al., 2020. Early outcomes from the English National health service diabetes
prevention programme. Diabetes Care, 43(1), pp.152-160.
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