Presentation on Social Gradient of Health

For instance, the less advantaged people in socioeconomic status have worse health outcomes than the more advantaged (Baum and Fisher, 2014). The link between class and these health inequalities is explained using three models namely; cultural/behavioral, materialist/structuralist, and psycho-social/social capital. In the cultural/behavioral model, differences in health damaging or health-promoting behaviors exist across social classes and consequently contribute to the different health gradients. This means the lower social classes opt for less healthy lifestyles like increased consumption of drugs than the people in the middle and upper social strata. However, the programs for behavior change through awareness creation on health risks and benefits have limited effect on low social-economic populations because strategies used require enormous resources (Baum and Fisher, 2014).

The measures target root causes of inequalities to minimize socio-economic disadvantages while encouraging redistributive strategies in education, employment, and income. Other strategies include universal planning, regulatory and taxation towards structural factors triggering risky health behaviours like price incentives and controls on sales or food regulation in alcohol use and smoking as well as continuous community development initiatives in disadvantaged areas. In conclusion, the social gradient in health exists in all cadres of every society s implying health inequities affect all people, but the people exhibiting low health status are mostly the disadvantaged. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for listening to me, I hope the information will be useful as we work towards availing equal and quality health care to all. References Baum, F.