(City, State)
In Australia, various factors have been identified as determinants of health status in any given population. These factors include class, gender, ethnicity or whether one is indigenous or non-indigenous. Understanding the effect of these determinants on health and their interaction poses a great challenge. Gender and ethnicity are some of the complex traits and are very useful since they include social dimension that are necessary in the understanding their impact on health. This paper is aimed at showing how class, gender, indigeneity or ethnicity impact on the health status of people living in Australia.
In terms of gender, women are reported to have worse health when compared to men even with the fact that women live longer than men. Women are known to go through a lot of nonfatal illnesses most of which are life-threatening as they grow old (Bird & Rieker, 2008; Case & Paxson, 2005). Women suffer more health problems than their men counterpart even without considering the reproductive conditions that they face. They have more chronic conditions that are not fatal lasting for more than three months. Some of these conditions include constipation, eczema, back pain, varicose veins, chronic bronchitis, hemorrhoids, thyroid conditions, gallbladder conditions, asthma, colitis, dermatitis, bursitis, chronic sinusitis, headaches, ulcers, and arthritis (Ross, et al., 2012).
Women are reported to suffer from more acute conditions that last for less than three months such as gastroenteritis, upper respiratory infections, as well as other short-lived infectious diseases. Unlike women, men are involved in chronic diseases that are more life-threatening such as coronary heart disease, cirrhosis, stroke, emphysema, atherosclerosis, cancer, and kidney disease. All these conditions are the leading causes of death (Case & Paxson, 2005). In all the diseases that are classified as leading causes of death, it is only diabetes where its rate in women is close to that in men. This may be as a result of higher life expectancy in women than in men and the fact that men suffer from many fatal diseases than women (Ross, et al., 2012).
Health problems faced by women are sometimes viewed form a medical point of view as minor. However, these problems are not so minor when they are viewed in the way they affect the daily life of women. When compared to men, women go through greater experiences that are stressful every day most of which are associated with the fact that they are socioeconomically disadvantaged. Some of these socioeconomic disadvantages include having jobs that are poorly paying, economic hardship, and oppressive and routine work, all of which result in poor health.
However, more men than women may be involved in habits that are more destructive and dangerous such as heavy drinking, smoking, using guns, being involved in fights, or driving while drunk. These dangerous lifestyles that are dangerous may contribute to the greater fatal health issues that are seen in men than women and hence the reduced life expectancy. Being involved in these activities may help men to avoid problems that are stress related that are experienced mainly by women (Ross, et al., 2012). Men who have various conditions that are caused by smoking such as cardiovascular disease and lung disorders may experience higher hospital episodes and have high mortality instances than women with similar conditions. This may imply that men experience severe forms of the conditions than women (Case & Paxson, 2005).
Other than the fact that women have many health issues than men, the health measures that are used to determine the health of a population, men perform worse than women. Some of these measures include life expectancy, level of cardiovascular mortality, depression, injury rate, and suicide. This is mainly contributed by the fact that most medical practices and medical research mainly put much focus on the health needs of the women while ignoring the health needs of men (Karoski, 2011).
Although factors such as race, gender, indigeneity and ethnicity tend to be the major contributors of inequity in health, inequities in socioeconomic resource distribution such as education, employment, wealth among others in Australia tend to result into some kind of classification. Social class position has a strong impact on the life chances that an individual gets. These include the chance to stay alive in the first year after a child is born, the chance to see fine arts, the chance to have good health and growth, chance to have medical attention when one is sick, and the chance to get proper education. The ability to move through the class system is an indication of a system that has an open stratification such as that in Australia. Most people have been able to achieve an upper social class mainly through education. There is a very huge inequity in the way wealth especially property is distributed in Australia. The class that an individual is in also influences the income that one gets. About 5% of the population is believed to own 30% of the wealth (Carson, et al., 2007).
A combination of factors comprising of social class is associated with varying health of a given population. Much of the research that has been conducted has shown the effects of the socioeconomic factors may have a contribution to the health of an individual. Health status such as cardiovascular disease may be associated with measures of socioeconomic such as income. Most of the developed countries with income and wealth distribution that is relatively unequal may result in greater inequalities in health in areas like infant mortality and life expectancy either at birth or later in life. However, countries that are less developed with a more equally distributed wealth may have a fairly equity in health.
The Australian population has been divided into different regions by using a five-part socioeconomic disadvantage index. The index was developed by the Bureau of Statistics. Those people who are in the bottom region are mainly those who experienced increased rates of morbidity and mortality. The rate of morbidity and mortality as well as the risk factors in men and women who are in the range of 25 and 64 years are indicated as being the highest in people living in the areas that are mostly disadvantaged (Carson, et al., 2007).
The leading causes of death in people who are in the most disadvantaged region include heart disease, lung disease, accidents or injuries and stroke. When compared with the least disadvantaged region 107% more men and 170% more women have been reported to die due to heart diseases. On the other hand, 102, 93, 1nd 124 % more men have been reported to die due as a result of lung cancer, stroke, and accidents or injuries respectively than those who died from the same conditions in least disadvantaged regions. In the case of women, 73, 84, and 103% more women die as a result of lung cancer, stroke, and accidents or injuries respectively than those who died from the same conditions in least disadvantaged regions (Germov, 2009).
This national display is also supported by studies that are conducted in cities such as Sydney in demonstrating the clear relationship that exists between the socioeconomic factors and the rate of mortality both in males and females form all age groups. Levels of suicide also have a positive association with various socioeconomic measures. The association is mainly evident in males than it does in female where many men with low socioeconomic status are involved in suicide than women of the same class and men of a higher socioeconomic status (Page, et al., 2006).
Conversely, those people who are advantaged socioeconomically enjoy better health. The children from these families have a significantly better health when compared to children from disadvantaged families socioeconomically (Spurrier, et al., 2003). The health inequalities are still witnessed even after the health of the general Australian population is improved over the last two decades (Carson, et al., 2007).
Racism is a manifestation of other broader issues of oppression and may include sexism, classism and ageism. Oppression is also associated with the privilege concept and thus racism may result in some of the Australian population being given privileges and getting opportunities in an unfair manner. Most people who are affected by the issue of racism in Australia are the indigenous people (Paradies, et al., 2008). As health is a complex and multifaceted phenomenon among human populations, this factor is not any lesser for the indigenous peoples. Unlike the white people, racism is a very fundamental factor in determining the health of the Indigenous peoples. The pathways that may take racism to ill-health include reduction in the access of the societal resources that are necessary for health such as education, employment, housing, social support, medical care among others. There may be an increase in the level at which indigenous people are exposed to risk factors that are linked to ill health as compared to the white people. The indigenous people may also be physically assaulted by the other people belonging to different races. This may increase stress and negative emotions and hence increased mental illnesses, affect the immune, cardiovascular, and endocrine systems. People who are affected by racism may respond to the feeling by getting involved in practices such as alcohol, smoking and other drug use and, therefore, be in a chance of having ill health (Paradies, et al., 2008).
In Australia, reports have indicated that when non-Indigenous patients are compared with Indigenous people with the same needs, the non-Indigenous people are only a third less likely to get the necessary medical attention on any condition and in particular for patients with lung cancer and coronary diseases (Hall, et al., 2004; Coory & Walsh, 2005). In addition, the Indigenous people in Australia have three times less chance of getting a kidney transplant when compared to the other Australians who are at the same level of need (Cass, et al., 2004). In a similar study that was conducted in Aotearoa, the results showed that Māori have a less chance of receiving cardiac and obstetric interventions when compared to non-Māori with the same medical needs. The Māori also have greater rates of reporting events that are more advanced in hospitals as compared to the non- Māori (Paradies, et al., 2008).
Although Australians have a good health, life expectancy at birth is only 56 for the Indigenous men and 63 for the indigenous women. However, the life expectancy for those who are not Indigenous is about 20 years longer than the Indigenous people. The level of health inequality is greatly felt by the Indigenous people in Australia when compared to the inequality that is suffered by any group that is in a developed and contemporary society.
The Indigenous Australians also suffer inequality in the distribution of socioeconomic resources and have thus remained obstinately poorer than the other groups in Australians. Some of the outstanding socioeconomic indicators which show the strong difference between the indigenous and non-Indigenous representation nationally include rate of unemployment, level of education, standards of living among others. For instance, the percentage number of male Indigenous who are not employed is 22% while that of the non-Indigenous is 8%. The rate of unemployment is 18% and 7% for the Indigenous and non-Indigenous respectively. While the percentage of the Indigenous people with is 2%, the portion of non-Indigenous people with a bachelor degree is 13 percent. In terms of the people who stay in rental accommodations, 70% of the Indigenous people live in rental houses while only 24% of the Non-Indigenous people live in rental houses.
With such kind of data, there is an obvious relationship between the high poverty rates that are seen in Indigenous people with the poor health that they receive. The years that one is in school have been associated with a reduction in the mortality rate with women showing a smaller significance than men. The big gap that exists between being a male or female and health and mortality may be reduced by increasing the level of education (Ross, et al., 2012).
There are, therefore, different determinants that may affect the accessibility of health facilities in any given population. In Australia, the major determinants that may lead to differences in the way people are treated include their gender, race and indigeneity. These factors have affected the health status of people living in Australia.
Reference List
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