Poverty And Health Essay

This essay will explore and evaluate the reasons sociologists put forward to explain the unequal social distribution of poverty and health. It will discuss social class, gender and ethnicity, and how they relate to poverty and health. It will also explore the competing definitions of poverty and the way in which they are used by different governments in order to create social policies.
The absolute definition of poverty applies to all societies and does not change over time. An individual is judged to be in absolute poverty if do not have access to the basic necessities required in order to survive. These necessities include food and shelter. In contrast relative poverty varies depending on the differing standards of individual societies.

This led to the beginning of the welfare state in 1945 and The National Health Service on 5th July 1948. Social policy changes with time and depending on the political party that are in power and the definition of poverty that they use (Browne, 2013). Examples of these changes to policies include the introduction of interviews for all benefit claimants to discuss their reasons for claiming and the support that could be given to help them into work. This was bought in by the labour government in 1999 (BBC News, 2002). This change in policy aimed to encourage people to help themselves move off of benefits and out of poverty (Browne, 2013).
A link can be found between poverty and ill health, with those in poverty unable to afford a healthy diet as fresh ingredients can be more expensive than processed foods (Knapton, 2013).There are inequalities in the health of different social groups including social class, gender and

There may be biological reasons for this, such as African-Caribbean’s that have a predisposition to high blood pressure. Cultural reasons affect the diet of some ethnic groups, with items that are high in fat such as ghee increasing the chances of developing heart disease. Language barriers may cause ethnic minorities difficulty while accessing health care, with interpreters not always being available (Wright, 2010). Prejudice may also have an effect on the poverty and health of different ethnic groups, preventing them from gaining employment, promotion or fair pay and