Sociology Essay: Health, Inequality, and Rural Australia

This sociology essay examines the relationship between social inequality, inequity, and health outcomes specifically within rural and remote areas of Australia. The essay defines social inequality as the uneven distribution of resources across social groups, highlighting how factors like income, access to healthcare, and geographic location contribute to health disparities. Social inequity is also discussed, focusing on the unequal distribution of opportunities and rewards, particularly in the context of access to education and healthcare for those in rural areas. The essay emphasizes the lack of access to essential resources and infrastructure, such as hospitals and clean water, as key drivers of health inequality. It also points to the impact on indigenous populations and how these inequalities lead to poorer health outcomes. The conclusion stresses the need for government intervention to address these social determinants of health and reduce inequality and inequity. The essay references several academic sources to support its arguments.

Sociology Short Answers

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
Relationship between social inequality, inequity and health due to rural and remote residence
in Australia...................................................................................................................................1
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................2
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................4

INTRODUCTION
Rural and remote refers to those area which is considered to be outside area of major
cities in Australia1. This essay will highlight the relationship between social inequality,
inequality and health due to rural and remote residence in the Australia.
MAIN BODY
Relationship between social inequality, inequity and health due to rural and remote residence in
Australia
There is a strong relationship between social inequality, inequity and health in terms of
social life of rural and remote residence people and general people of Australia. These all can be
understood by following -
Social Inequality – Social inequality is a situation which occur due to uneven distribution of
resources between various social groups and societies. It also involves the uneven allocation
criteria which enclose lines of socially defined categories of individuals. This discrimination
between societies or group of people is done on the basis of power, race, religion, cultural values,
gender, age, income, employment nature and sexual orientation etc. One of the major social issue
which is being face by some Australian is Health Inequality. Health Inequality refers to the
situation which occur due to unequal distribution of health determinants between different social
groups of people or societies2. One of the major health determinant is “Rural and Remote
Residence”. For instance, due to lack of access to hospitals, people of rural and remote areas
faces high chances of exposing to health risk. They are not getting equal access to the required
facilities and infrastructure such as safe drinking water, effective sewage systems, waste
collection services and healthy housing etc., which leads to creation of health inequality in
Australia. As per Susan L. Thomas (2015), australians who are living in rural areas or remote
area experience poor health in comparison to the people who are living in metropolitan residents
the reason behind this in lack of access to health-care. For example – there is dramatic change in
the health of general population and indigenous people who live in rural & remote area. Due to
1 Rojas-Zerpa JC, Yusta JM. Application of multicriteria decision methods for electric
supply planning in rural and remote areas. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews. 2015
Dec 1;52:557-71.
2 Weiss GL, Lonnquist LE. The sociology of health, healing, and illness. Routledge; 2017
Feb 24.
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the fact that equal opportunities are not provided to all people, general population has
experienced a decrease of cardiovascular disease by 70% while from the same disease
indigenous people has suffered a huge health risks witnessing increase in death rate. Which
clearly shows that resources are not available to people in equal amount. Therefore it can be seen
that how health and social inequality are related to each others..
Social Inequity – Social inequity means the unequal distribution of rewards and opportunities to
people at different positions in a society. It is also known as social disparity. Due to a strong
factor which is providing great health and health care opportunities, socio-economic contributes
in increasing social as well as health inequity in Australia. The people who are from Established
Affluent Class (who is rich and wealthy) and the people who are from Established Working
Class ( who don't have proper employment opportunities which lead to lack of earning sources
for them) both have the right to access the health facilities but due to unequal distribution of
social and financial capital & resources, poor class people feel social inequity. Thus, due to lack
of availability of financial resources to rural and remote area, people are not able to maintain
good healthy life. This lead to increase in the health inequity. Lack of access to education for the
people from rural and remote residence area can lead to enhancement in the rate of health
inequity. In case, rural & remote residence people are not able to afford any opportunities related
to goods and services, home, education, occupation and income, it results in poor life style of
them which lead to increase in health inequity as well as social equity in Australia. For example ,
there are so many children who belong to rural and remote area and they are not able to attend
the pre-school education due to lack of access of education facilities. This lead to increase in
health inequity due to lack of education level. Like this, there is a relationship between health
and social equity.
There is a major relationship between social inequity, inequalities and health in
indigenous area of Australia. Due to creation of inequalities of any facilities which are required
to better life, lead to creation of inequity which results in non availability of social facilities and
which results in creating negative impact on health. Increase in inequality will lead to create
more gap between poor and rich population of Australia, on which government is not paying
fully attention and this lead to more inequities.
2

CONCLUSION
From the above essay, it has been summarized that there are various social determinants
of health in Australia which affects the large group of people's health due to unequal distribution
of financial resources. In order to remove the inequality and inequity, Australian government are
required to look upon these determinants and accordingly take actions.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Ettorre, E., 2016. Culture, bodies and the sociology of health. Routledge.
Fox, N.J., 2016. Health sociology from post-structuralism to the new
materialisms. Health:. 20(1). pp.62-74.
Martin D, Nettleton S, Buse C, Prior L, Twigg J. Architecture and health care: a place for
sociology. Sociology of health & illness. 2015 Sep;37(7):1007-22.
Rojas-Zerpa JC, Yusta JM. Application of multicriteria decision methods for electric supply
planning in rural and remote areas. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews. 2015 Dec
1;52:557-71.
Weiss GL, Lonnquist LE. The sociology of health, healing, and illness. Routledge; 2017 Feb 24.
4