Exploring Health Inequalities: Jess and Rosemarry Case Study Analysis

This case study examines health inequalities, focusing on the contrasting health experiences of Jess and Rosemarry. It explores the influence of socioeconomic factors, including income, education, and access to healthcare, on health outcomes. The assignment analyzes how factors like smoking, drug abuse, and access to private healthcare contribute to disparities in health and illness. It references data from the Office for National Statistics and other sources to highlight the widening gap in life expectancy and the prevalence of illness across different socioeconomic groups. The study emphasizes the importance of addressing health inequalities by improving access to resources and promoting healthier lifestyles. It concludes by highlighting the fundamental causes of health inequality, such as work, education, and housing, and their impact on vulnerable populations. This assignment is a valuable resource for students studying public health and related fields, with references from multiple sources.

Variation in
health and
illness

Case study: Jess and
Rosemarry
 There are large scale
inequalities in society in
terms of health and illness
across different socio-
economic groups. According
to the data, in England ,
there are inequalities in
health among between the
ethnic groups.
Figure: Inequalities across
population
Source: (Ons.gov.uk,
2019).

Graphical representation of
health inequalities
FIGURE: HEALTH INEQUALITIES
AMONG MEN
SOURCE: HEALTHSCOTLAND.SCOT,
2019).
FIGURE: HEALTH INEQUALITIES AMONG
WOMEN
SOURCE: HEALTHSCOTLAND.SCOT,
2019).

 Evidences show that the key factors for Jess’s poor health is due
to the habit of smoking and drug abuse. According to the
data ,there is considerable inequality among the gender in terms of
poor health, while 25% men of the mixed ethnic group suffers
from smoke related disease only 3% women are found to be
suffering form lung
diseases(Publichealthmatters.blog.gov.uk,2019).
Reasons and Rationale

 This leads to different illness and health behaviors across the
citizens.
 This data could be inked to the above-mentioned case study of
Jess’s family where Jess suffers from multiple health issues
compared to Rosemary even though both of them are if the same
age.

 While Rosemary also suffered from post-natal depression, she had the chance
to take health benefit from the private clinic while Jess’s and her children
suffered from multiple other illness and lack of health services has caused
poor outcome in studies for her children. This health inequalities are
prominent and enough evidences have been found to prove this point.

• The health department of England shows that there is a widening gap
between the life expectancy of men and women adnd even between
women of rich and poor societies. number of illness ae found to be more
among the women of the poor economic background. In case of Jess,
this is the real situation(Ons.gov.uk, 2019).

• The poor economic condition coupled with a poor literacy and
unhealthy practices of smoking and drug abuse has escalated this
illness. However, the importance of the accessibility to health are can not
be ignores.Rosemarry’s condition would have been the same only if she
could not have afforded the health services. Hence, the real scenario of
the health inequalities are stark ad it is true in most of the situations.

• According to Mullahy et al(2018), the health inequalities between
families are a result of the different income groups. The impact of the
income is even severe across gender, women and children are more
vulnerable while the higher income group people are lesser effected by
the illness and have better accessibility to health services.
Health inequalities are certain unavoidable differences in health issues
and illness across population, different social groups and specific to
certain population group (Healthscotland.scot,2019).

• There are certain fundamental causes of health inequality, most
prominent among them are work, education and good quality housing.
In case of Jess and Rosemarry, the situation is same. It is the economic
factor that is guiding impacting their health individually and the future
impact is felt among their children. These factors together make this
situation more vulnerable for certain population groups.

References
 Healthscotland.scot (2019). What are health inequalities?. [online]
Healthscotland.scot. Available at: http://www.healthscotland.scot/health-
inequalities/what-are-health-inequalities [Accessed 4 Jan. 2019].
 Mullahy, J., Robert, S. and Wolfe, B., 2018. Health, income, and
inequality. In The Inequality Reader (pp. 622-635). Routledge.
 Ons.gov.uk (2019). All publications related to health inequalities - Office
for National Statistics. [online] Ons.gov.uk. Available at:
https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialc
are/healthinequalities/publications [Accessed 4 Jan. 2019].
 Publichealthmatters.blog.gov.uk (2019). Understanding health
inequalities in England - Public health matters. [online]
Publichealthmatters.blog.gov.uk. Available at:
https://publichealthmatters.blog.gov.uk/2017/07/13/understanding-health-
inequalities-in-england/ [Accessed 4 Jan. 2019].