The population health factors is a subject of extensive discussion within American health care system, nonetheless, few comprehend the bearing to modern health care environment.
An array of factors like personal, social, economic, and environment issues influence and determines the health of individual and population, acting in various combination (Knickman & Kovner, 2015). These determinants of health, known as population health determinants generally include genetics, access to health care, individual behavior, social determinant, physical environment (Knickman & Kovner, 2015).
Determinant factors are fundamental to the prevention of disease, illness, and injury because it illustrates health dispositions on why some individual or population are in better health than another counterpart. HIV/AID is the population health issue I selected. About 1.2 million of people in the United States are living with HIV infection, and approximately 1 in 8 (12.8%) are unaware of their infection. HIV/AIDS disproportionately affects racial and ethnic minorities, many of whom are medically underserved. Our health status depends on how we live our daily lives, how we interact with the environment in which we live, and our support systems (Knickman & Kovner, 2015).
Access to Health Care
According to Human Rights Watch (2014) access to health, and scarcity is a fundamental problem amongst many people that reside in a southern part of the United States. Health care access and medical
Determinants of health are many factors combined to affect the health of individuals and communities. Health Starts within the environment we live in, the kind of work we do, the schools we attend, our neighborhood and surrendering communities.
Communities are sometimes largely unaware that social factors rather than medical ones, such as income, and employment status, shape our health. Our health is also determined by the health and social services we receive, and our ability to attain high education levels, food and safe housing, among other factors.
Health as a whole is determined by the quality of life, as well as an individuals’ ability to create personal positive social and physical environments. These environments include homes, schools, workplaces and the community as a whole. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO, 2003), the social determinants of health are conditions in which people live, work, and grow, where these factors are influenced by money, power and available resources. There are five main aspects of social determinants: economic stability, social/community health, general health, education, and the surrounding built environment, where each determinant refers to multiple key issues. These determinants commonly affect health, the functioning of people, their quality of life, as well as social, economic and physical risks. Examples of social determinants include:
The determinants of health are economic and social conditions that affect people’s health status. These influence the living and working conditions that impacts people’s everyday living condition. Factors such as the place and the environment we live in, genetics, educational level or work status and income, as well as friends and family are some of the aspects that affects our health condition. On the other hand, the people that have an access to good health care and have financial stability are less susceptible and are often less affected. (NANB, 2009)
“The social determinants of health are the conditions in which people are born, grow, work, live, and age, and the wider set of forces and systems shaping the conditions of daily life” (World Health Organisation (WHO), 2009). The social determinants of health can be divided into 5 categories, age, sex and hereditary factors, individual lifestyle factors, social and community networks, living and working conditions and general socioeconomic, cultural and
Determinants of health, which includes, income and social status, social support networks, education, employment and working conditions, physical health practices and coping skills, healthy child development and health services determine the status of our health (Government of PEI, 1996, pp.15-17).
Health determinants are the factors that can have a positive or negative impact on a person’s health. Many things can affect how healthy we are, from a complex interplay between macro to molecular influence to influences from society (for example, the prevalence of drug and alcohol use), to individual factors such as genetic make-up. Education, employment, income, lifestyle, psychosocial and physiological factors can also influence a person’s health and wellbeing. Health can also be significantly affected, and modified to some extent, by the quality and timeliness of the health care services we receive, including preventative health care such as education, screening and immunization.
Healthcare in the United States is facing numerous issues within the current and future turbulent times. I believe that two major issues are the disparity of provision of healthcare to varying societal groups as well as the projected shortfall of healthcare providers to adequately service the population in general.
The social determinants of health have been said to be causes of a variety of mental and physical illnesses. There are five main social determinants of health, in agreement with the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, and they include: "education, economic stability, health and health care, neighborhood and built environment, and social and community context." These five identified factors shape and influence everyone within a community and assist with understanding health across various levels of the socioecological background.1-2
Social determinants can strengthen or undermine the health of individuals and communities (Wilkinson & Marmot 2003). For example, in general, people from poorer social or economic circumstances are at greater risk of poor health than people who are more advantaged.
Access to Medical Care Services – The CDC states that determinants of health are “factors that contribute to a person’s current state of health” Teitelbaum & Wilensky, p.124, 2017) The biggest factor to the current state of an individual’s health is access to medical care. Without medical care services health issues will linger as they will be put off and never addressed until the issue becomes serious.
Social determinants of health focus on how social and environmental resources affect people’s health. Another way of describing social determinants of health would be trying to find the root causes of health problems. Some of the factors that determine their health would be: access to medical care, access to healthy food, access to clean water, neighborhood safety, education and health literacy, occupation and job security, and gender. An example of how the MSSP demonstrates social determinants of health is based on low-income.
Social determinants of health often look at different reasons that underlines how the distribution of health among different social groups. Wade et al. (2016) explains that social determinants of health are more than an individualist approach, it focus on the social structures of the cause of health, decease, and morality. Social determinants of health is often described at different factors such as income, gender, ethnicity, work environment, culture, social roles and aging influence the course and outcome of disease. It looks the social, structural, and environmental factors that influence people health outcome.
The analysis of social determinants and health equity aims to understand the biopsychosocial genesis of the health - disease process, understanding the determinants and social conditions in which a person is born, it grows, live, work , and age (WHO, 2005) this includes political , cultural , economic aspects and aspects related to health systems. Closely linked to the analysis of determinants is in analyzing health inequities, understood as the absence of unfair and avoidable inequalities that are explained precisely by the social determinants of health. The ONS aims to deepen and develop the analysis the health situation in the country with social determinants perspective, for which it has recognized the need
Changes in access to health care across different populations are the chief reason for current disparities in health care provision. These changes occur for several reasons, and some of the main factors that contribute to the problem in the United States are: Lack of health insurance – Several racial, ethnic, socioeconomic and other minority groups lack adequate health insurance coverage in comparison with people who can afford healthcare insurance. The majority of these individuals are likely to put off health care or go without the necessary healthcare and medication that is needed. Lack of financial resources – Lack of accessibility to funding is a barrier to health care for a lot of people living in the United States