Analyzing Chronic Illness, Health Inequalities, and Lifestyle Medicine

This essay examines chronic illnesses, health inequalities, and lifestyle medicine, drawing on two key readings. The first reading defines social class and its impact on health outcomes, highlighting how the working class is disproportionately affected by chronic diseases due to factors like poor working conditions and limited access to resources. It also explores the role of health inequalities in Australia and the measures that can be taken to address them, such as health education and improved living conditions. The second reading focuses on lifestyle medicine as an approach to prevent and treat diseases caused by environmental and behavioral factors, like obesity. It emphasizes the importance of modifying risk factors and the role of exercise and nutrition. The essay concludes by summarizing the common themes of the two readings, highlighting the roles of poor living conditions, improper medication, and nutrition as key factors contributing to chronic illnesses. It emphasizes the need for accessible health facilities and services, along with patient education on behavioral factors and financial management to reduce health inequalities.

Running Head: CHRONIC ILLNESS
Chronic Illness
Names
Institution

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An introduction to health sociology
Germov, J. (2009). Second opinion. An introduction to Health Psychology. Australia &New
Zealand: Oxford University Press.
From this article Germov (2009) defined class as a group of people having common
attributes or properties different from other types and kinds. He also argued that class is the main
cause of social inequality. The article plays a crucial role in enabling one to understand the levels
of class, which the author classifies them into three namely: upper, middle and working classes.
Upper class refers to a group of people who own resources and capital and employs workers to
make profit for them. They don’t take part in the daily operations of the businesses but have
access to company’s profits.
Middle class refers to a group of people who possess some skills and qualification which
enables them to work in better working conditions compared to unskilled ones (Rosalind, 2016).
They may include small business owners, health professionals, self-employed and also teachers.
Working class consist of a group of both skilled and unskilled manual workers who get paid to
exercise their labor powers. According to Shalene (2017), working class people are mostly
affected by chronic diseases and also experience health inequalities. This is because most of
them are exposed to risk working conditions, poor nutrition and stress.
According to Ryan (2015), Class can also lead to health inequalities. Australians who had
low incomes, unemployed and lacked resources had high chances of getting chronic diseases
such as diabetes, cancer, depression and heart diseases. This means that these people were
affected by illness, high death rates and short life expectancy. The existence of social inequality

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in health outcome shows that there is something causing unequal distribution of healthy in
Australia and this is not fair so actions should be taken.
According to Jennifer (2012), there are ways in which a country can address health
inequalities between its citizens. One of these ways is by educating individuals on health
enhancing behaviors. This would enable the individuals get to know what kind of disease they
are suffering from and also help them take the measures required. This would also include
educating them on how to avoid some of the health hazards which brings risk to their lives. Also,
improving living and working conditions can assist in controlling health inequalities. This is
done through making easy access to nutrition food, safe work places and cheap recreation
services.
Moreover, educating disadvantaged people on how to maintain their income to overcome
long term poverty can help reduce health inequalities. This is because most people tend to use
their money on things which are not essentials for life and fail to save for more important use in
the future. This education would make them prioritize their needs and avoid the problems
associated with poverty like being discriminated when receiving some services such as health.
Germov argues that, people should not only focus on educating people on how to use money but
focus on making facilities and health services available to them because most people fail to leave
classy lifestyles due to lack of money.

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READING 4.7
INTRODUCTION TO LIFESTYLE MEDICINE
Egger, G., Binns, A & Rossner, S. (2008) Lifestyle Medicine, McGraw-Hill, Sydney
Egger, Binns & Roosner (2008) defined obesity as a health problem which arises from
the environmental and behavioral factors associated with the ways of living in the modern world.
These factors include stress, inactivity, improper medication and sexual behaviors. This disease
needs an approach of managing them and lifestyle medicine is seen to be the best approach of
doing it. According to Beverly (2014), lifestyle medicine is a branch which deals with research,
prevention and treatment of diseases brought about by lifestyle factors such as sexual behaviors,
poor nutrition and stress. Lifestyle medicine extends from primary prevention which involves
preventing the disease from occurring by modifying the behavioral or environmental cause.
From primary prevention, lifestyle medicine extends to secondary whereby it involves modifying
risks to avoid the disease and finally tertiary which includes preventing the diseases from
reoccurring. Lifestyle medicines focus on individuals and also a small group of people and like
in any other specialized area, one needs to have great knowledge and skills to get involved in this
approach.
According to Claire (2012), lifestyle medicine has also played a big role in preventing
and treating diseases which seemed to be dangerous to the people. With improved standards of
living and good nutrition, people living with sicknesses such as chronic and acute diseases which
could easily cause death can now live at their later life because these diseases are manageable.
Acute diseases are ones which come on rapidly and are accompanied by distinct symptoms.
These include measles and influenza. On the other hand, chronic diseases are ones which are

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persistent and requires long term management which can even go for a lifetime. With lifestyle
medicines, diseases which seemed to be dangerous and can cost one’s life are now manageable.
However, lifestyle medicine is different from traditional and conventional approaches
(Marie, 2014). This is because lifestyle medicines aim at modifying the behavioral and lifestyle
causes of diseases rather than curing them whereas traditional and conventional treats individual
risk factors. Also in lifestyle medicine, the patient is an active partner of the care whereas in
traditional and conventional he or she is a passive recipient of care. It is concluded that exercise
and nutrition are the penicillin of lifestyle medicine. Also to prevent these diseases like obesity,
people should avoid too much food.
Due to the introduction of the lifestyle medicines, many questions have raised on who is
the best person to practice the approach (Leena, 2013). This is because health professionals such
as nurses and doctors may be qualified in one field and not the other. Universities and colleges
are therefore advised to include a related non –medicine discipline which would enable health
professionals to give advice on the treatment and prevention of these diseases (Lindsey &
Brandon, 2011). This would also help them understand some of the behavioral and
environmental factors that can bring about the illness.
Key ideas shared
From the two papers, it is evident that most sicknesses and health inequalities are caused
by environmental and behavioral factors. People who are disadvantaged and prone to poor
working conditions, stress and eating unhealthy food are most affected. It is also shown from the
two readings that, working class people receive poor services whenever they visit health facilities
and some of these diseases have caused death to many. According to Roger (2017), most of these

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diseases are curable and health professionals have introduced some of the measures to prevent
them. From the two papers, they have recognized the need of improving working and nutritional
conditions of the patients. This is improved by making easy access to health facilities and foods
which are fit for human living. The readings have also discussed educating the patients on the
behavioral factors which can easily lead to illness and health inequality. This include giving
guidance to them on how they should utilize their small income to avoid poverty. They have also
advised the patients on sexual behaviors which can cause diseases such as HIV and other
sexually transmitted diseases (Ally, 2017).
Conclusion
From the first reading, it is concluded that class is a group of people sharing behaviors
and resources which are different from other type and kinds. Although class is one of the most
cause of social inequality, there are other factors which leads to the same. These include social
groups such as youth and the aged. Class consist of three categories which includes, upper,
middle and working classes. Working class are the low-income earners and have high risks of
getting chronic diseases such as cancer, diabetes, depression and heart illnesses. This is because
they are exposed to high-risk factors which are the major causes of diseases such as poor
working conditions and improper medication. It is also concluded that low-income earners in
Australia experience health inequalities. Government have come up with measures to control this
problem. This is by making easy access to health facilities, services and better working
conditions.
From the second reading, one can conclude that obesity and other diseases are caused by
environmental and behavioral factors. This includes, poor working conditions, stress, improper
medication and lack of body exercise. In this case, low income earners are the most affected. To

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prevent this problem, health professionals have come up with lifestyle medicine which aims at
preventing and treating these diseases. This approach involves modifying environmental and
behavioral risk factors which are the major cause of these diseases. Lifestyle medicine is a
specialized area like any other therefore it requires a lot of knowledge and skills. Universities are
encouraged to include in every medicine degree a related non-medicine discipline which would
enable health professionals to give advice on prevention and treatment of these diseases.
The two readings seem to be sharing some of the ideas on the causes, prevention and
treatment of chronic diseases. From both readings, the causes of these diseases are mainly poor
living conditions, improper medication and also improper nutrition. To prevent these diseases, it
is evident from the two readings that one should make easy access to health facilities and
services for low-income earners. This would also include educating patients on some of the
behavioral factors that can lead to these illnesses (Salah, 2016). It also involves advising them on
how to use their low incomes to prevent experiencing poverty and health inequalities in future.

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References.
Ally, D. (2017). Chronic Poetics, Chronic Illness: Reading Tory Dent's HIV Poetry through
Disability Poetics and Feminist Bioethics. Journal of Literary and Cultural Disability
Studies, 11(1), 9-12
Beverly, L. (2014). Quality of Life for Older Adults with Serious, Chronic Illness. Forum on
Public Policy: A Journal of the Oxford Round Table, 34-40
Claire, W. (2012). Chronic Illness and Informal Cares: 'Non-Persons' in the Health System,
Neither cares, Workers or Citizens. Health Sociology Review, 21(1), 20-25
Egger, G., Binns, A & Rossner, S. (2008) Lifestyle Medicine, McGraw-Hill, Sydney
Germov, J. (2009). Second opinion. An introduction to Health Psychology. Australia &New
Zealand: Oxford University Press.
Jennifer, K. (2012). Self-Management Support in Chronic Illness Care: A Concept Analysis.
Research and Theory for Nursing Practice, 26(2), 10-15
Leena, P. (2013). Nurses' Perceptions of Parent Empowerment in Chronic Illness.
Contemporary Nurse: a Journal for the Australian Nursing Profession, 45(2), 10-15
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Health Counseling, 33(1), 10-15
Marie, A. K. (2014). Design Concepts for Digital Diabetes Practice: Design to Explore, Share,
and Camouflage Chronic Illness. International Journal of Design, 8(3), 5-10

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Roger, W. A. (2017). Children and Adolescents Coping with Chronic Illness and Disability.
International Journal of Child and Adolescent Health, 10(4), 90-95
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Ryan, S. (2015). Youth with Chronic Illness Forming Identities through Leisure. Journal of
Leisure Research, 47(1), 5-12
Salah, A. (2016). Illness Perceptions and Disability Levels among Older Adults
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