Determinants of Health

Question: Discuss about theDeterminants of Health. Answer: Introduction According to World Health organisation, the social and environmental indicators affect child health. The family and community of the child shape the social determinants (Viner et al., 2012). The children, who grow up in the lap of environment are healthier as compared to the children brought up in the artificial environment. Health of child can be understood from her activity (Ditekemena et al., 2012). If a child is physically healthy as she has natural tendency to learn through non-verbal communication, remains focused while doing something it means she can capture the cognitive skill very easily. It indicates that the child is mentally fit. As mentioned by Marmot et al. (2012), health is determined by socio economic condition, education, gender equality in a country. Poverty and low socio economic status aggravates the risk of poor health. Poor child suffers from lack of proper nutrition, sanitation, water and community support. Therefore, they are more exposed to the health risk compared to the child with having required social benefits. Education is an important determinant of health. World heal organisation mentioned that women education is essential for the benefit of the health of children. The cognitive skill of child is improved if her mother has basic skill and knowledge about health care. Attainment of education at the early life improves health consciousness and spread awareness about restricting diseases (Palipudi et al., 2012). In the developing countries, study in the primary level is given priority. Hence, health government needs to take initiative to include health education at the primary level. Gender equality is important determinant of health in the society. Children are mostly dependent upon their mother. Gender inequality reduces the opportunity of women to access health service properly. There is a negative relationship between the health outcome and gender inequality. As gender inequality in a society increases, health condition of female counter part become vulnerable. Life expectancy, infant mortality, maternal mortality is the indicators of health (Gore Kothari, 2012). National wealth and income inequality affect the health of individual. Increase in national wealth improves in the health outcome of children and adult people. Adolescents of less developed countries are more vulnerable compared to the developed countries. Several studies have revealed that the rate of teenage pregnancy increases due to lack of health and social awareness. Droomers et al. (2014) cited that income inequality has direct effect on health whereas poverty has indirect impact on health. As mentioned by countries GDP, political and economic system is responsible for the income and gender inequality. People spend more on the food product during low income. As the income increases, standard of living of people increases. People then spend money for education. Education improves the social knowledge, which further improves health consciousness among the families. Apart from society, family has great influence on the health of children. The According to World Health Organisation, early childhood development improves the global health. Health education plays an important role in transition from childhood to adolescent and young age. Children get primary education from the family members and surrounding environment. Viner et al. (2012) mentioned that the parents, who are highly knowledgeable about their childs activity at the adolescence age, could reduce the risk of teenage pregnancy, sexual risk behaviour, violence etc. Family influences both physical and mental health (Ditekemena et al., 2012). Family attitude affects the behaviour of smoking, alcohol intake. Regular diet influences the heath of individual. Proper diet in regular complex lifestyle, intake of fresh water determines the health condition. Marmot et al. (2012) mentioned that rural people have less opportunity to access the health services compared to the urban people. The determinants of rural health care are income level, education level, ethnicity and primary health literacy. Environment health affects the individual health. Water quality, air quality, sanitary systems are important determinant of health. Palipudi et al. (2012) argued that as food is grown mostly in rural areas, rural people could get fresh food in comparison to the urban people. Therefore, chances of diseases such as diabetics, heart diseases increases. On the other hand, rising air pollution in the populated city due to increasing number of cars, energy consumption, and depletion of ozone layer negatively affect the health. Lack of proper health infrastructure is a major cause of lack of health awareness in the rural areas. However, globalisation and urbanisation have made the urban health vulnerable due to concentration of dwellings in suburban ar eas. References Ditekemena, J., Koole, O., Engmann, C., Matendo, R., Tshefu, A., Ryder, R., Colebunders, R. (2012). Determinants of male involvement in maternal and child health services in sub-Saharan Africa: a review.Reproductive health,9(1), 1. Droomers, M., Harting, J., Jongeneel-Grimen, B., Rutten, L., van Kats, J., Stronks, K. (2014). Area-based interventions to ameliorate deprived Dutch neighborhoods in practice: Does the Dutch District Approach address the social determinants of health to such an extent that future health impacts may be expected?.Preventive medicine,61, 122-127. Gore, D., Kothari, A. (2012). Social determinants of health in Canada: Are healthy living initiatives there yet? A policy analysis.International journal for equity in health,11(1), 1. Marmot, M., Allen, J., Bell, R., Bloomer, E., Goldblatt, P. (2012). 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