Inequalities in Health

Inequalities in Health

A lot of characteristics of different social classes have changed over

the years as society has changed, and the divisions between different

classes are perhaps not as clear as they used to be. But it is just as

possible to find hundreds of ways in which the lifestyles, behaviour,

opportunities and judgments of people are still greatly influenced by

the social class they belong to.

There are clear differences shown in the relationships between health

and differences in class.

Joy lives in a working class family. She and her family live in poor

and unhealthy environment. The family has a poor unsuitable diet

consisting mainly of traditional fast foods and the majority of the

family are smokers. It is speculated from this that joy and her family

are in the higher margin to suffer physical and mental illness.

Working class people carry this stigma due to their living conditions

and lifestyles, and it is doctors who are mainly responsible for this

labelling. It would appear that doctors now look at the social class

instead of the symptoms to give a diagnosis. It is apparent that the

view upon the working class and illness is that they are seen to be

less likely to lead a healthy life and less likely to survive in the

long term. Evaluating the theories it seems that if you are from a

working class family like joy then decline and bad health are expected

and seen as inevitable, and presumably the working class die younger.

They are looked upon as being unassertive in their situation and a

victim of their own circumstance. This amounts down to labelling of

the social group.

Jane lives in a middle class fa...

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... her condition and person before

she even arrived at the doctor's surgery. Upon her being at the

doctors thought would sway to her being frequently ill throughout her

life and on a downward spiral. This would all be accumulated from the

poor environment she has come from and would be going back to. The

outlook being a girl fighting a losing battle. Joy like the rest of

the lower working class is a statistic.

Jane however would be given the benefit of the doubt. She would I

think be treated fairly like an open book and given the opportunity to

express herself before the doctor makes his decision. Her social class

is positive therefore indicating hope and improvement. Jane would be

openly welcomed and suitably treated; she will not be looked upon as a

statistic but labelled to have a chance with improvement inevitable.