Material Conditions and Education Level as Risk Factors

Discuss about the Health Promotion for Employment,Education and Income.

Determinants of health can be described as the factors that are main causes of staying healthy or to become ill. There are several that exist in our working conditions and the everyday living conditions. All these contribute to the circumstances in which people age, work, live and grow. The social determinants of health are the factors that include the social support, employment, education and income. The health of a particular person is influenced by the different types of the biomedical factors and are thus the part of a person’s genetic makeup and the individual lifestyle. The factors have a negative effective effect on the health of a person. In the year 2014, it has been noted that the 23 percent of the adults have the high blood pressure and this has resulted into several diseases like the chronic kidney diseases, heart failure and stroke (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2018). This study will be based on the impact of the social determinants of health as risk factors for Cardiovascular Disease in Australia.

Social determinants of health- The different social determinants of health that directly contribute to the cardiovascular diseases are the material conditions that depend on the wealth and the income of a person; health; education; political voice; social connections; environment; physical insecurity that includes both violence and crime; access to the personal activities. It is important to note that the lower levels of education are associated with the occurrence of the cardiovascular risk factors. The rates of the cardiovascular diseases are the most among the among the person that lack literacy and numeracy. Income and the income inequality is studied in relation to the cardiovascular diseases. It is noticed that the inequalities in income have a direct relationship with the education of a person. It has been found that the families that have good income and wealth, such families experience less cardiovascular morality. The occupational status/employment has connections with the cardiovascular diseases but it is not clear (Havranek et al., 2015). Whereas it is easy to establish a link between the cardiovascular disease and unemployment. There are more of a psychological effect on a person that has a biological like with the development of the cardiovascular disease. The poor socioeconomic condition is a major risk in the development of the children and the early life factors play a major role in the development of cardiovascular disease in the later part of life. There is a consistent evidence of social determinants and its association with the several risk factors like alcohol consumption, physical activity, smoking, fibrinogen, body mass index, lipid levels, blood pressure. Access to healthcare itself is a complex aspect that has its roots with the cardiovascular disease. it incorporates the characteristics like the appropriateness, affordability, accommodation, availability, acceptability, approachability. The residential environments or the living conditions that vary with the time, place, a person has led to the variance in the cardiovascular disease among the individuals (Havranek et al., 2015). 

Impact of Income Inequality on Cardiovascular Morality

The risk factors of the cardiovascular diseases- There are many risk factors that are related to the cardiovascular diseases. The main issues of the cardiovascular diseases are the smoking, obesity, physical activity, hypertension (hypertension). These risk factors have the risk factors associated with them. High-fat diets, eating high-calorie foods are the major contributors to obesity and this causes the cardiovascular diseases. The recent trend shows that in Australia the scenario of overweight and obesity is up. Inactivity has been considered to be the major contributor of obesity and high rates of obesity have been seen to be associated with the cardiovascular diseases. Unhealthy eating, sedentary lifestyle is the major social determinates of health that contribute negatively to the health of the Australians (Australian Medical Association, 2018). Thus, it is seen that the inactivity and obesity both contribute positively to hypertension like the smoking does. Smoking is also found to be contributing positively to atherosclerosis and this is the main cause of cardiovascular disease. Smoking is also a social determinant of health that is the underlying cause of cardiovascular diseases. The trend in smoking across Australia is found to be upwards and the other risk factors that like up to the development of the cardiovascular diseases is the family history. Thus, some of the protective measures that can be suggested for the cardiovascular diseases are: eating a balanced diet that is low in saturated fats, regular health check-up, and regular physical activity (Humanrights.gov.au, 2018). The sociocultural determinants that contribute positively to the determinants of the cardiovascular diseases include the culture, religion, peers, media and family. It is also important to note that the genetics also play a major role in the several chronic diseases and this includes the cardiovascular disease as well. Along with the contribution of the genetics that is inherited, growing up in a family that is obese and overweight, eating food that has high sugar content, eating food that have high content of saturated fat, children that grow and live in a similar kind of the lifestyle and also make the similar kind of the lifestyle choices.  All these factors contribute positively to the to the risk factors of the development of cardiovascular diseases. Peers influence the others to make poor quality health choices like the pressurizing to smoke and this can also lead to the development of the cardiovascular diseases (Psaltopoulou et al., 2017). There are other social determinants of health like the education, income and employment. The lifestyle choices are especially influenced by the knowledge and health literacy and especially education. It has been seen that the high levels of education are able to produce the low incidence of cardiovascular diseases. cardiovascular diseases are seen in high rates in the blue-collar employment. It has been found that it is often linked with the other lifestyle choices and other forms of employment like the drinking, smoking and having the foods that contain the high quantity of the saturated fat diets. The lower income levels are related to very few health-related choices.  Many may incur the cost to the individual like the buying the lean meat in place of the regular meat, joining a gym (Martínez-García et al., 2018). 

Occupational Status and Employment

Groups at risk- there are groups that are at risk of the cardiovascular diseases and this include the following:

• Australian Aboriginals and the Torres Islanders (ATSI) experience as many as 2.6 times of heart attack over the other Australians that are over 25 years. The ATSI are also 1.7 times more likely to have a stroke.
• The people that have a very low socio-economic status are at a 40 percent higher rate of having the cardiovascular disease and also stroke.
• Remote and the rural places have a higher burden of stroke in comparison to the people that live in the major cities (Shepherd, Li & Zubrick, 2012).
• The elderly people that are about 15 percent of those that are having the coronary heart diseases and this account for about 70 percent of the people that had a stroke.
• The smokers are at a higher risk of developing the cardiovascular diseases.
• The males suffer more from the cardiovascular diseases than the female counterparts (Pmc.gov.au, 2018).

The Australian Aboriginals and the Torres Strait Islanders experience the biggest burden of the disease. It has been seen that the disease burden has majorly increased due to the socio-economic disadvantaged condition. The Indigenous Australians that are living in the most disadvantaged socio-economic condition experience the largest disease burden. The areas that is the least socioeconomically disadvantaged, in such areas the disease burden is twice much higher. A gradient has been noticed in the areas that have the increasing socio-economic disadvantaged and this is observed in the non-disease groups (Brown et al., 2014). A large number of the relative differences is noticed in the socio-economic group are cardiovascular diseases, urinary and kidney diseases, endocrine disorders, mental and the substance use disorders. The high rates of blood pressure are noticed by the individuals that are aged 12. The rates are also lower in individuals that live in the advantaged areas in comparison to the individuals that live in the disadvantaged areas (Health.gov.au, 2018).

Thus, from the above study, it can be concluded that there has been a steady rise in the incidence of the cardiovascular diseases all around the world. This condition thus demands an immediate action from the international health organizations, health agencies and the public health agencies in Australia. Apart from the genetic and the physiologic basis, it has been widely seen that the cardiovascular diseases have a highly relevant link with the social determinants of health. Thus, there is a demand for the designing the control strategies, treatment and the prevention strategies. In Australia, the disease burden that arises from the social determinants of health and the cardiovascular diseases have affected all the citizens and the indigenous people alike. The lifestyle choices and the eating habits to large extent has affected the health of the individuals.

Reference

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. (2018). Australia’s health 2016, Summary – Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. Retrieved from https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/australias-health/australias-health-2016/contents/summary

Australian Medical Association. (2018). Social Determinants of Health and the Prevention of Health Inequities – 2007. Retrieved from https://ama.com.au/position-statement/social-determinants-health-and-prevention-health-inequities-2007

Brown, A., Carrington, M. J., McGrady, M., Lee, G., Zeitz, C., Krum, H., … & Stewart, S. (2014). Cardiometabolic risk and disease in Indigenous Australians: the heart of the heart study. International journal of cardiology, 171(3), 377-383.

Health.gov.au. (2018). Department of Health | Social Determinants. Retrieved from https://www.health.gov.au/internet/publications/publishing.nsf/Content/oatsih-hpf-2012-toc~exec-sum~social-det

Humanrights.gov.au. (2018). Social determinants and the health of Indigenous peoples in Australia – a human rights based approach | Australian Human Rights Commission. Retrieved from https://www.humanrights.gov.au/news/speeches/social-determinants-and-health-indigenous-peoples-australia-human-rights-based

Martínez-García, M., Salinas-Ortega, M., Estrada-Arriaga, I., Hernández-Lemus, E., García-Herrera, R., & Vallejo, M. (2018). A systematic approach to analyze the social determinants of cardiovascular disease. PloS one, 13(1), e0190960.

Pmc.gov.au. (2018). 2017 HPF Report – Overview: Social determinants. Retrieved from https://www.pmc.gov.au/sites/default/files/publications/indigenous/hpf-2017/overview/Social-determinants.html

Psaltopoulou, T., Hatzis, G., Papageorgiou, N., Androulakis, E., Briasoulis, A., & Tousoulis, D. (2017). Socioeconomic status and risk factors for cardiovascular disease: impact of dietary mediators. Hellenic Journal of Cardiology, 58(1), 32-42.

Shepherd, C. C., Li, J., & Zubrick, S. R. (2012). Social gradients in the health of Indigenous Australians. American journal of public health, 102(1), 107-117.