SOCIOLOGY
Introduction
Health and social care refer to the services that are rendered to people by social care institutions and health workers. As much as these services are essential to society, challenges such as inequality in the provision of these services tend to exist. The difference may be brought about by factors such as age and gender. The ethnicity of a given patient sometimes can also affect the level and speed at which the patient is attended to by the social workers. Thus, inequality in health and social care has proven to be a significant issue in this field.
Body
Problems of Measuring Inequality in Health or Social Care
Inequality in social care, as well as health services, is the difference in health status as well as the distribution of health materials in certain regions depending majorly on education, income level, employment status, gender, and ethnicity (Luker, 2020). This inequality is unfair since, depending on one’s degree in society or social status, it determines how fast the individual receives care. In turn, the low-income level persons and low economic position people in the community tend to be at a higher risk of having poor health conditions.
The difference in disease distribution among societies and groups within them tends to be a problem in measuring inequality of the social care provided, whether it is within the rich or the poor (Luker, 2020). Diseases such as morbidity related, among others, tend to be associated with the poor in the society, whereas health-related activities and chronic diseases dominate the much wealthier society. The gap between these societal related diseases is narrowing due to the continued transition in modern society as a result of infrastructure and development. With this, it, therefore, becomes a challenge in measuring the inequality of social care provided amongst the rich and the poor.
Variation in availability and quality of essential events and data collection poses to be another significant challenge. Data collected, such as the birth and death rate, marital status as well as the population of a particular society, help to determine the causes and death rate (Regidor, 2020). In cases where disadvantaged groups in the community are involved, there is inaccurate data collected for mortality, which ends up undercounted. The more advantaged groups have complete as well as accurate data recorded on the other hand. With this mishap, it makes it a problem to determine whether or not there is an unequal or equal level of services that are provided.
Health conditions and self-reports problems are other challenges in measuring the level of equality or not in health and social care. It involves the collection of data across different economic societies, which can be affected by diagnosis bias and avoidance (Regidor, 2020). In cases where the preference of their diagnosis is whereby there is an unequal level of access to medical care, which may give inaccurate data to work on. Advantaged groups, on the other hand, work with more accurate feedback from the surveys since they have a better chance in medical care. Thus, working with inaccurate data makes it hard for the surveyors as well as the social care providers to determine whether there is inequality in the services provided.
A comparison of self-reported health and symptoms across groups as well as reference groups are another problem. Inaccurate data may be collected because different social groups use various references to judge their health and well-being (Regidor, 2020). A person in a less advantaged society reports his level of fitness at a much lower rate as compared to a person from a more advantaged part of the organisation. It is because health issues tend to be more common in more deprived communities, so self-reported health and symptoms from low-income groups are low. The inaccurate reports thus make it hard to establish whether there is inequality in health or social care.
Sociological Research into Gender and Inequality and Health
With gender, women tend to have poor health status as compared to men in terms of chronic illness or even general health rates. As much as women’s health rate is low, they, in turn, have a life expectancy that is longer than that of men (Malmusi, & Vives & Benach & Borrell, 2014). Women tend to be more susceptible to diseases because of their social roles in the social and economic resources making employment status a key factor. The individual could either be employed, which could be permanent, on contract, self-employed, unemployed, retired, a student, or even dedicated to doing house chores. It generally affects the health of the individual in that women tend to have more manual related work than men and also spend three hours or more in a day doing house chores (Malmusi, & Vives & Benach & Borrell, 2014). Where there is employment, women are less advantaged in getting contracts as compared to men making the women experience financial strains, no valid assets, and in no position to report problems concerning safety.
It, in turn, makes the health status of women to be much lower than that of men. As described below, the table explains the variables derived from bringing together gender and economic, social class in society (Malmusi, & Vives & Benach & Borrell, 2014). In both social courses of the non-manual and manual groups, women tend to have low self-rated health as compared to men.
Figure 1. Women versus men in different social class, between the ages of 25-64.
Sociological Research into Ethnicity and Inequality and Health
Racial differences in health have significantly affected how health and social care services are provided, making it hard to develop effective means and cut down on health inequities. Racial differences dated in the early life of the United States state that African Americans received more inferior social and health care as compared to whites (Williams & Sternthal, 2012). The level of poor health amongst the black was high as compared to the whites, in which black men were unhealthier than black women. Black women majorly had domestic jobs, which made them have access to good food, shelter, and better living conditions. Unequal health and social care made the health of black women to be at a better shape due to a more conducive working environment.
Black men, on the other hand, had jobs that exposed them to harsh climates and weather conditions, leading them into having poor housing, food, and adverse living conditions. With these ethnic differences in providing health, it was seen that white men lived longer than the black population by six years in the life expectancy, while the white women lived longer than the black women population by an additional four years in their life expectancy (Williams & Sternthal, 2012). But, since the year 1970, the life expectancy of blacks has dramatically increased as compared to that of the whites, making black women live much longer compared to white men.
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Figure 2. Racial Differences in Years of Life Expectancy at birth: 1950 – Present
Conclusion
Inequality in health and social care has brought about various challenges in our day to day life and the economy as well. The difference in the care services rendered tends to affect the people both directly as well as indirectly. Due to lack or inadequate health care, the less advantaged society may, in severe cases, end up losing their jobs and spend most of their savings buying a lot of medical equipment to attend to their health needs. With the poor losing jobs because of lack or unequal medical attention and care, the economy at large also suffers due to a lack of human resources. In gender, it has also been seen that as much as women have a higher life expectancy as compared to the male population, they more susceptible to poor health. Assumption leads to unequal health and social care because more attention is given to men. While race and ethnicity have always been an issue, because whites have better health conditions and social care services as compared to black, making the black prone to poor health, making the whites generally outliving the blacks. Thus, equality in the provision of these services is an issue that should be adhered to and challenged.
Reference List
Luker, K. (2020). Health and Social Care in the Community. Journal on Social Work. 1.573, 1365-2524. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/13652524
Regidor, E. (2020). Measures of Health Inequalities. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health. 58.10. https://jech.bmj.com/content/58/10/858
Williams, D.R., & Sternthal, N. (2012). Understanding Racial/Ethnic Disparities in Health: Sociological Contributions. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3468327/
Malmusi, D., & Vives, A., & Benach, J., & Borrell, C. (2014). Gender Inequalities in Health: Exploring the Contributions of Living Conditions in the Intersection of Social Class. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3927744/