Addressing Social Determinants of Health in Primary Healthcare

Running head: PRIMARY HEALTHCARE
PRIMARY HEALTHCARE
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PRIMARY HEALTHCARE
Issue: Chronic disorder burden in the nation
One of the most important strategic outcomes of the National Primary Health Care
Strategic Framework is strategy number three that talks about effective ways for tackling
social determinants of health and well being with the help of health promotion as well as
prevention and even screening and early interventions. One of the chosen actions under this
strategy that the assignment would be based on is the identification of proper ways that would
help in addressing the social determinants of health like “social status, geographic location,
health literacy, housing, education, employment and access to health services” that remain
associated with poor health conditions (National primary health care strategic framework,
2013). This can be referred to as the best intervention that had been proposed by the Standing
Council in Health in Australia as it aligns with the main foundations of the bio-psycho-social
model of health that primary health professionals are following now. Studies have criticised
the biomedical model of health that was in practise in the nation for long. This model mainly
governs that professionals need to care for all the biological determinants of health that
causes different disorders. However, this model had been criticised as it does not provide a
comprehensive care approach to patients that includes considering social factors,
psychological factors, economic issues and similar other factors that also indirectly affect
health. This chosen strategy had been seen to reject the notion of biomedical model and had
been based on the bio-psycho-social model of care. Many chronic ailments like obesity,
diabetes, osteoarthritis and cardiovascular disorders are seen to be linked with social
determinants of health. The latter have the capacity of affect lifestyle choices, poor healthcare
decision-making, inappropriate diets and many others that can make individuals vulnerable to
develop chronic ailments (Mossialos et al., 2015). Hence, the strategy correctly addresses the
factors that need to be considered while developing health promotion programs, prevention
and screening systems and early interventions. This would help in preventing the individuals

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PRIMARY HEALTHCARE
of the nation in developing such chronic disorders rather than making them spend huge
amount of funds for treating them and suffering from poor quality life.
Equity has been defined by WHO as the absence of avoidable as well as remediable
differences among different groups of people based in society, economy, demography and
geography. It mainly means fairness where everyone in the nation would have the fair
opportunity in living healthy long lives. It mainly wants to state that health should never be
compromised as health should never be disadvantaged because of an individuals’ or a groups’
race, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, income, and many others. Social justice, similarly,
ensures justice that needs to be maintained in terms of distribution of wealth, opportunities as
well as different privileges within the society (Gibson et al., 2015). These two aspects are
intricately associated with health of individuals in the nation.
Studies have shown that people belonging to low socio-economic cohorts are more
vulnerable in developing chronic disorders and suffer from poor quality life. In such instance,
financial security plays great role in determining the quality of life a person leads. This can
be explained with the help of an example. A person from such background would always opt
for cheaper calorie dense fast foods pr take-away foods for their diets. Such foods make them
highly prone to obesity that in turn in the risk factor for diabetes, osteoarthritis and others.
People who have low income or unemployed also tend to settle for such cheaper calorie
dense foods. Hence, it can be understood that maintenance of equity and social justice in
ensuring equal distribution of wealth, finance, jobs, education scopes and similar others can
help such cohorts of people to adopt better lifestyles and diet choices. Individuals who have
low level of education might never understand the importance of being physically active and
importance of exercises in regular lives (Baum et al., 2016). People who are unemployed and
with low income may be forced to remain in small or shared houses, which are overcrowded,
unhygienic and prone to infection. Therefore, primary healthcare initiatives need to address