Health Inequality

Health is defined as the state of being free from illness or injury, therefore health inequality is best described as the differences in health status or in the distribution of health determinates between different population groups. Everyone in society will not experience the same quality or standards of wellbeing. There will be differences in life expectancy (mortality) as well as illness (morbidity) between different groups of social class. I will be examining as well as discussing the health differences based on social class including the sociological explanations put forward to explain these.

From the Nineteenth century social researchers have had an interest in health differences based on social class, this was due to the public health …show more content…
This was set up to investigate the inequalities in health in the United Kingdom, it also was set up to analyse the lifestyles and health records of all social classes. The findings of the report showed there was a difference in health based on social class, gender and ethnicity, this has been measured using the different outcomes of infant deaths, mortality rates, morbidity, disability and life expectancy. Although thirty-seven recommendations were made in the report, two main areas argued and focused upon where the government should aim to reduce poverty in the United Kingdom by spending more money on health education and prevention of illness. The Black Report showed that the working class are less likely to use preventative health care than the middle class such as antenatal. At the time the Black Report was published Conservatives were now the main power in government and critized that the report did not explain the inequalities in health and that people in poverty avail to use health services and spending more on health service would not contribute to health standards. Six years after the Black report, Margaret Whitehead headed the Whitehead Report also known as the Health Divide Report concentrating on social class as the main cause of inequality in health. The Health Education Council (HEC) commissioned this in 1987 to update evidence on inequalities, therefore assessing the progress made in the last six years. The HEC is a body the government set up although they can work independently in theory, this may also be known as a quango. In the Whitehead report it was revealed there was a gap between health standards and social class had expanded since the Black Report was published this also confirmed that there was indeed a direct link between health and social class. As the report was commissioned the

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