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Poor health outcomes appear to be an effect of economic inequality across a population. Nations and regions with greater economic inequality show poorer outcomes in life expectancy, [31]: Figure 1.1 mental health, [31]: Figure 5.1 drug abuse, [31]: Figure 5.3 obesity, [31]: Figure 7.1 educational performance, teenage birthrates, and ill health due to violence.
Equity in health refers to the situation whereby every individual has a fair opportunity to attain their full health potential. [5] Overall, the term "health disparities", or "health inequalities", is widely understood as the differences in health between people who are situated in different positions in a socioeconomic hierarchy. [6]
The social determinants of health in poverty describe the factors that affect impoverished populations' health and health inequality. Inequalities in health stem from the conditions of people's lives, including living conditions, work environment, age, and other social factors, and how these affect people's ability to respond to illness. [1]
The materialist approach offers insight into the sources of health inequalities among individuals and nations. Adoption of health-threatening behaviors is also influenced by material deprivation and stress. [80] Environments influence whether individuals take up tobacco, use alcohol, consume poor diets, and have low levels of physical activity.
The Inverse Care Law is a key issue in debates about the provision of health care and health inequality. [5] As Frank Dobson put it when he was United Kingdom Secretary of State for Health: "Inequality in health is the worst inequality of all. There is no more serious inequality than knowing that you'll die sooner because you're badly off." [6]
There is a great deal of research into inequalities in health care. In 2003, the Institute of Medicine released a report showing that race and ethnicity were significantly associated with the quality of healthcare received, even after controlling for socioeconomic factors such as access to care. [79]
Unnatural Causes: Is Inequality Making Us Sick? is a four-hour documentary series, broadcast nationally in the United States on PBS in spring 2008, [1] that examines the role of social determinants of health in creating health inequalities/health disparities (which the film considers health inequities) in the US.
While correlating, health and status have arisen in the U.S. from interrelated forces that may intricately accumulate or negate one another due to specific historical contexts. [15] As this lack of cause and effect simplicity indicates, exactly where disease-related health inequality arises is murky, and multiple factors likely contribute.