Social Determinants of Health: Cultural Barriers and Physical Environment

Running head: NURSING ASSIGNMENT
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Name of the Student
Name of the university
Author’s note

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Introduction
As per the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (2018), the life expectancy of the
aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islanders was found to be 10.6 years less than that of the non-
indigenous counterparts. Several factors are accountable for the low life expectancy of the
aboriginals. Aboriginal people might have shorter life expectancy due to some social
determinants of health (HealthInfoNet 2018).
Good health is associated to a multifaceted set of factors that involves health behaviors,
accessibility of the health services, environmental factors and endowment of health. Social
determinants of health can be termed as the conditions where people grow, work, live and age.
These can be measured by the indicators reflecting on the personal situation of the individuals.
These social determinants of health had been affecting the life expectancy of the aboriginal
people and exposing this group of people towards chronic illness and lifestyle diseases like
diabetes, COPD. This essay will focus on two determinants of health such as the cultural barriers
of indigenous people and the physical environment. Finally, this essay would also suggest some
probable recommendations to lessen this life expectancy gap.
Discussion
Gross inequality is present between the aboriginal and the non-indigenous Australians. It
should be remembered that disparities in health comes from social inequalities. Great variances
causes large health inequalities. Disparities in access to health care matters and also the
differences in life style. The 17 years gap in the life expectancy among the indigenous and the

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non-indigenous Australians indicates large societal inequities (Marmot 2011). One might think
of the two sections of influences to which the ill health of the aboriginals can be ascribed. The
physical environment plays an important role in determining the health of a population. The
physical environment for the aboriginals acts to be detrimental as the health has been exposed to
historical dispossession of the traditional territories. The probability of the aboriginal people
residing in congested houses are 5 times high than that of their non-aboriginal counterparts. 60 %
of the aboriginal people living in overcrowded houses live in the Northern territory. A substantial
shortage of the housing and poor quality of houses can be found in rural areas. Lack of houses
has led to overcrowding among the Inuit communities. While the problems related to housing
have been faced by the aboriginal people in the remote communities are of some pressing
concern, the majority of the Australian lives in major cities. Aboriginals residing in the urban
areas have overcrowded homes, lacking appropriate ventilation causing the formation of the
molds, leading to several chronic health problems like asthma or allergies among the aboriginal
children. According to Marmot (2005) major infectious disease is linked with the poverty but
also the non-communicable diseases to both physical and emotional conditions. Aboriginal
people living in remote communities face considerable food insecurity while accessing both
traditional and market food (Andersen et al. 2017). Due to high transportation cost, in most of
the cases, healthy, fresh and the nutritious food are not available to the aboriginal people
(Andersen et al. 2017). Some of the other important factors related to home are poor sanitation
techniques, improper or no management of wastes, an unsafe supply of water, lack of community
resources, representing physical conditions hat jeopardize the health status of the aboriginal
people. The careful burden of disease has pointed towards the importance of risk factors like
overweight, poor diet, alcohol and smoking.