How Inequality affects well-being

Medha Modekurti
Oct 3, 2024
4 min read

Health and wellness aren’t just about medications and genetics; several other factors also play a role. These factors are called Social Determinants of Health (SDoH). These include socioeconomic status, neighborhood, education, employment, social networks, and access to healthcare. In this post, we'll explore how these determinants contribute to health disparities and what can be done to address the inequalities they create.

Socioeconomic Factors

The biggest socioeconomic factor is income. Studies have found that lower-income leads to more difficulty obtaining medical insurance or paying for procedures and medications. As a result, they face poorer health outcomes as they lack access to treatment. This leads to greater risks for disease and mortality. In addition, more finance is needed to afford goods and services that promote well-being. For instance, higher-income people can afford gym memberships, healthy food, resources to quit smoking or vaping and live in a neighborhood without environmental toxins.

Neighborhood

The location and environment of a neighborhood also affect health disparities. Every neighborhood has a localized climate: air quality, noise pollution, toxins, trees, etc. Places with worse localized climates have more air and noise pollution that can exacerbate existing health conditions or develop new conditions. Extreme heat can also worsen conditions. Similarly, excessive noise can reduce sleep quality and heighten stress.

Social conditions in a neighborhood such as violence can affect mental and physical health. For example, it can lead to long-term trauma, which takes a bigger toll on children. Exposure to violence heightens an individual’s stress, leading to health conditions like hypertension. It may also invoke unhealthy behaviors which can weaken immune systems.

Education

Typically, individuals with lower education experience more chronic health issues including, obesity, asthma, diabetes, and heart disease. This usually occurs due to less income. Education and income are interlinked, meaning that higher education leads to more income and lower education leads to less income. Those with less education tend to live in neighborhoods with fewer health resources, causing health disparities. A lack of healthcare facilities exacerbates their existing conditions.

As a result of poor health, individuals can experience educational setbacks, specifically children—poor health results in recurrent absences. Children also have difficulty focusing in class, affecting their school performance. They are also more likely to be held back due to the excessive absences.

Employment

Employment and quality of healthcare are interlinked. Individuals who are employed in higher-paying jobs are more likely to have better health insurance. For example, those who are employed in well-paying jobs have insurance that covers preventative screenings like blood tests, cholesterol, and more. In 2017, less than one-third of workers who earned their state’s minimum wage, or less, were offered healthcare coverage. In addition, unemployed individuals have poorer health and face more stress-related disorders. In fact, a 2010 Gallup Poll found that unemployed Americans were more likely to be diagnosed with depression and report feelings of sadness and worry, in comparison to employed Americans.

Social Networks

Social networks come in various forms: personal connectivity, global networks, internet health forums, and more. Every facet of social networks plays a role in an individual's health. They provide information on health, drugs, procedures, education, and nutrition, all of which emphasize public information in the medicine and healthcare fields. Social networks tend to cause individuals who are connected to present similar health issues. For instance, a study in 2007 found that there were clusters of obesity found in a network of people studied. They concluded that the clusters reflected the spread of obesity among those who were connected. Other studies have seen an improvement in the overall health of neighborhoods that had health and well-being programs.

Lack of Access to Care

Individuals from certain racial or ethnic groups may face more barriers when accessing healthcare. These groups also face implicit bias, meaning that they tend to receive lower-quality care from healthcare providers. In addition, people who come from low-income backgrounds also lack access to care. For instance, rural areas face more healthcare shortages than any other part of the US. In 2022, 65.6% of healthcare shortages were in rural areas. Rural residents also may lack proper insurance coverage which is associated with less access to care and can lead to poorer health outcomes.

What can we do?

Health disparities exist in some manner in all communities, making it difficult for individuals to improve or get educated about their health. A lot can be done to help boost this situation.

Below are some examples:

Raising awareness: Educating healthcare providers and communities can increase health equity. Healthcare providers can have cultural competency training to ensure that ethnic disparities can be reduced

Increasing Health Literacy: Healthcare organizations can increase the health literacy of groups facing healthcare inequalities. Expansion of educational programming, workshops, and support programs can all help

Providing more resources: Racial and ethnic groups are more likely to have less access to health resources. Similarly, rural, low-income communities face more healthcare shortages. Strengthening and sustaining healthcare resources can better serve these communities.

In conclusion, several social determinants of health (SDoH) cause healthcare disparities within communities. These disparities can affect the long-term health of individuals and lead to recurring conditions within racial or ethnic groups. As society continues to advance, it is important that healthcare disparities are reduced and all communities can have access to advanced medical care as well.