Question 2 (2000 words)

Critically discuss the theoretical approaches and health policies designed to address inequalities in health between social groups. How do they improve our understanding of the ways in which public health problems such as smoking, teenage pregnancy, CHD, stroke and so forth, have been tackled?

 

(N.B. The focus of this assignment should be current theoretical approaches and health policies regarding the tackling of health inequalities. The focus should not be a discussion of how particular public health problems have been tackled).

Solution

1. Introduction

An individual’s background and social group influences the level of their health status. As such, health inequality implies a disparity in health status (Arcaya et al., 2015). According to a study by Coyller and Smith (2020), health inequality arises due to the differences in gender, race or ethnicity, geographic locations, education or level of income, and sexual orientations. Besides the differences that occur in the health status, inequalities can be experienced in the access to and the quality of healthcare services.

2.Importance of dealing with health inequalities

Health inequalities have been on upward trend, and are set to increase unless there is deliberate action to counter them. The importance of tackling such inequalities therefore lies in the fact that the process helps to deliver an equal chance for everyone to live healthily. This eases the burden on the disadvantaged sections of the population. Further, where left unchallenged, such inequalities are set to attract added costs on society as a whole (Brown, 2020). It is in this connection, that WHO has previously liaised with governments within the EU to facilitate in the development of appropriate policies to enable creation of a more robust health system….Kindly click the purchase icon to access the full solution at $10