Determinants Of Health In The Environment

An individual’s health is contingent upon and therefore, dictated by the environment in which they reside. The following quote conceptualises this idea when it states, “people are only as healthy as the communities in which they live”. Indicating that the health of an individual is consequently, a product of their environment (Ashby & Pharr, 2012). In an era of transforming health systems globally, the recognition and enquiry of determinants of health have led to policymakers, coupled with health practitioners, achieving measurable success, as a consequence of a holistic approach. It is a holistic approach, within epidemiology, which aims to consider the wider determinants of health, as opposed to perceiving health through the isolation of

This is seen to influence health through an exposure to harmful surroundings, coupled with accessibility to health care. Firstly, the environment of an individual is seen to dictate their health through harmful surroundings, which has become more detrimental as a result of, and thus, can be seen in the effects of climate change. Essentially, climate change is recognised as the worldwide phenomena “created predominantly by burning fossil fuel, which add heat-trapping gases to earth’s atmosphere” (NASA, 2018). The significant rise in the average global temperature has resulted in a multitude of effects, in which communities are susceptible to. This effect can be seen in the fact that the direct damage costs to health are estimated to be between US$ 2-4 billion per year by 2030, causing approximately 250 000 additional deaths per year between 2030 and 2050 (World Health Organisation, 2018). Climate change, and hence, harmful surroundings have the ability to influence health initially, as climate change is a result of increased usage of fossil fuels (NASA, 2018). Identified by a significant portion of studies, a rise in fossil fuels leads to an increase in air pollution. This decreased air quality has been found to have detrimental effects on the inflammatory, autonomic and vascular processes within one’s body (Woolf & Aron, 2016), with hundreds of

A community that actively facilitates the improvement of health, will allow for its population to achieve measurable success in the movement towards being healthy. The built environment influences health, particularly in relation to chronic diseases, as there is strong evidence that indicates the burden of chronic disease can be reduced through active lifestyles and good nutrition (Perdue, Stone & Gostin, 2003). Therefore, the way in which a community is designed can either lead to an improvement or destruction of individuals health. This is made evident in research by CDC, which reported that the two main reasons for not exercising were a lack of structures, such as sidewalks and parks and fears about safety, for example, limited street lights (Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, 1999). Additionally, it was found that a close proximity to supermarkets, which sell fresh produce, was linked to less obesity and smoking, in comparison to a close the proximity to smaller conveniences stores that lacked this produced (Morland, Diez Roux & Wing, 2006). Therefore, the built environment of a region can either facilitate the improvement of health or enable its debilitation through the selective choices of a community design. This is depicted in the positive correlation between being healthy and the reduction of advertising and frequency of unhealthy substances as well