Inequalities in healthEE23CY131

3 credit unit

Aims & Objectives

Understand and evaluate stratification

Analyse data that demonstrates health

inequality

Analyse sociological explanations for health

inequalities

Statistics

What are Statistics?

What can statistics be used for?

Are statistics reliable?

How are statistics collected

Analyse statistics on the distribution of health and

illness.

How statistics are collected

The importance of

statistics

Research health

statistics relating to different

social groups

Highlight inequalities found using

statistics

Discuss the reliability of statistics.

Statistics Surveys are just one means of gathering statistics. How else can statistics be collected?

Ways of collecting statistics

Census

Medical records Ballots

Experiments

Statistics Why are statistics important? What can they help us to show?

Statistics can

show

Increase/decrease in medical conditions

Public opinionEmployment rates

Housing issues

Immigration/Emmigration

Demography Demography is the term used to describe the study of

changes in the size and structure of the population.

Demography Conduct your own demographic research on the Access to

HE Diploma (Health) class.

Using the survey papers provided compile statistics on the average learner on an Access to HE Diploma (Health) course at Coleg y Cymoedd

Use the worksheet provided to collect data on your class – collate your answers and answer the questions.

Demography – ask yourself What do your results tell you?

Are your results reliable?

Did you find any inequalities?

What could be the reasons for these inequalities?

Can we always trust statistics?

Read the article on ‘misleading statistics’ and decide whether we should always trust the things we read.

Answer the questions at the back of the article.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2640550/Does-sour-cream-cause-bike-accidents-No-looks-like-does-Graphs-reveal-statistics-produce-false-connections.html

http://www.tylervigen.com/spurious-correlations

Inequalities in healthEE23CY131

What do you think influences health?

Nature and biology

Lifestyle factors

Environmental factors

Illness is determined by much more than just biology

Use the heading to identify things

that might influence health

Sociological Approaches

Health and illness are not just natural or biological

Health and illnesses is shaped, distributed and understood in relation to social factors

Main determinants of healthSource: Dahlgren and Whitehead 1991.

What is Stratification??

How do you think this relates to

health?

Division into a hierarchy of

distinct social groups.

Social stratification

Occurs when social inequalities shape peoples life chances, and life styles.

Identifies differences.

Can be used to categorise class, gender and ethnicity.

Social class – Registrar generals social class scale

Occupational and educational status.

You decide!

Is it fair to use scales such as the registrar general list to group people and make assumptions about life chances?

Research! – Complete the following using resources in the LC

What do trends suggest about rates of health and illness relating to social class? How does social class affect health? What reasons are there for the trends in statistics?

What do trends suggest about rates of health and illness relating to gender? How does gender affect health? What reasons are there for the trends in statistics

What do trends suggest about rates of health and illness relating to ethnicity? How does gender affect health? What reasons are there for the trends in statistics?