Health Promotion: Socio-economic Influences, Government Strategies, and Models

Health Promotion
Course Title

Executive Summary
This report will represent an analysis on the health promotion strategies.
In the first section, we have discussed the socio-economic influences on human health. This
section involves the analysis of the effects of socio-economic influences on health. We have
discussed about how poverty, income, education and unemployment are affecting the health of
an individual. We have also analyzed the government reports and enquiries to find out the major
reason for inequalities in health.
In the second part of the report, the models of health promotions have been discussed. Also we
discussed about the government health strategies for education at local level and analyze their
link with the models. The last part was based on the political analysis of health promotion
strategies.
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Socio-economic influences on health
1. Explain the effects of Socio-economic Influences on health:
The socioeconomic factors are considering to be the most powerful risk factor for health. The
person having low socioeconomic position can greatly suffer from the poor health conditions.
Poor socioeconomic circumstance can affect the people such as workers, low ranking staff and
other middle class individuals. Often the stressful situations are the reasons for anxiousness,
worries which is damaging people’s heath. The social and psychological issues are the reason for
long term stress. The people who are continuously in a state of anxiousness, anxiety, low self-
esteem, less or no concentration on work, or isolated are a big threat to their health.
These kind of psychological risks can lead to extreme mental illness and premature death. The
person who is facing long term anxiety, insecurity or isolation can badly damage his health.
Socioeconomic factors are clearly associated with the morbidity and mortality of a person. The
factors such as income, education, or occupation is closely link to the health problems. The
people who are facing issues with these socioeconomic factors can have multiple health
problems like low birthweight, cardiovascular disease, hypertension, arthritis, diabetes, and
cancer.
Poverty
The issues of poverty in a society can have a major impact on the health of people or even
become a reason for their deaths. People in poverty can barely have the basic material necessity
of their life. Sometimes, they can’t even afford to buy food for themselves. These kind of people
have major health problems due to anxiety and stress level.
Income
In addition to providing means for purchasing health care, higher incomes can provide better
nutrition, housing, schooling, and recreation. Independent of actual income levels, the
distribution of income within countries and states has been linked to rates of mortality.9
Although controversial, one explanation is that underinvestment in public goods and welfare and
the experience of inequality are both greater in more stratified societies and that these, in turn,
affect health.10 If this is correct, then highly stratified societies take an additional toll on health
beyond that associated with absolute deprivation. Although the association between income and
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health is stronger at lower incomes, income effects persist above the poverty level.11 Health
effects at the upper part of the distribution may more strongly reflect relative status, while at the
lower part they may be more linked to absolute deprivation.
Education
Education is the most important socioeconomic element because it shapes the future
opportunities and earning potentials of people. the knowledge a person can receive through
education can help him to form his life in a superior way. The education provides the knowledge
that allow the person to have better access to information regarding health. However, researchers
have also shown that education can also have negative effects on the mental health of a student.
The students might face multiple issues regarding their course, exams and other educational
concerns. These issues can become the cause of their depression and stress.
Unemployment
Although the people in the phase of getting education are more pessimistic about their future, but
some of them might not be able to get a job after their studies. This is the major reason of stress
for these people. the unemployed people are often more stressed, anxious and depressed. The
unemployed people usually visit the physicians more than other people, take medicines and even
spent more time in bed sick.
In general, having a job is better than being unemployed. But those individuals who have jobs,
can also have the health issues. These issues are mainly related to their job styles, timing,
workload, low pay etc.
2. Identification of Government sources and an assessment of the relevance of the
same sources in reporting inequalities in health:
Health issues and inequalities are the major concerns for the UK government. The government is
constantly making efforts to reduce the health issues through improving working conditions,
performances, incentives and continuously monitoring the arrangements. The approaches to
overcome the health issues are mainly based on the Black report and the Acheson report.
The Black Report (1980) was based on the analysis of health inequalities which was designed
by the Labor government in 1977. The report identifies the four reasons for the health
inequalities such as artifact, natural selection, cultural, and structural. the report was later
rejected by the conservation government because of the cost and political opposition issue.
In 1997, the new government established the inquiry through “the second black report” which
was the modified version of the last black report about health inequalities. The report also
identifies the future policy development in healthcare sector.
In Acheson report (1998), it has been shown that the scientific evidences can supports the
socioeconomic factor in order to overcome the health inequalities. The report mainly supported
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