Social Determinants of Health PDF

Running head: SOCIAL DETERMINANTS OF HEALTH 1
Social Determinants of Health
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SOCIAL DETERMINANTS OF HEALTH 2
Why can disease be considered an economic issue?
People create utility by taking care of others without monetary reimbursement and
spending time with family and friends. A disease can be regarded an economic issue because
being ill economic aims like producing income which permits individuals to consume market
goods stand to be arbitrated that is, it is instrumental to society’s or people’s ability to undertake
desired operations (Frey & Stutzer, 2014). Secondly, the enjoyment of utilization of goods and
services is partly affected by the degree of well-being meaning that marginal utility acquired
from utilization is partially a function of the state of well-being. Individuals prefer to be healthier
than less healthy and therefore health impacts utility directly. This means that ill-health in
economic terms is an argument in the utility or social welfare function (Frey & Stutzer, 2014).
In what ways might the economic status of an individual be affected directly and indirectly
by HIV/AIDS?
The long period of sickness associated with HIV/AIDS reduces labor productivity. HIV/
AIDS affects the labor supply of an individual whereby the loss of labor result to questionable
livelihood decisions like delaying agricultural operations and finding other income generating
operations (Baranov, Bennett & Kohler, 2015). Furthermore, the burden of caregiving can
deepen the poverty of an individual moving some people into destitution. If death occurs due to
HIV/AIDS, the capability to earn money is reduced, and surviving individuals may sell
additional assets, borrow or search for new sources. Family savings are reduced because of the
rise of HIV/AIDS-related health disbursements on medicines along with treatment leaving less
income to invest in the economy and education of children. Also, individuals living with
HIV/AIDS have weak immunity and thus vulnerable to opportunistic diseases such as