1

“Who get sick?”

Student’s name

School

Course

Instructor

Date
 2

Pathogens like fungus, bacteria, and viruses found in food, air, and water can cause

infectious diseases such as the common cold and the flu, while environmental, lifestyle, and

genetic variables can cause non-infectious diseases as well. Although these disorders can harm

the human body, socioeconomic variables influence their likelihood of doing so. Human health is

influenced by the environment in which they are born, grow, live and work. People with the

lower socioeconomic position are more likely than those with higher socioeconomic status to

have long-term health concerns. Gender, age, and sexual orientation all have a part in an

individual's propensity to fall ill in addition to a person's socioeconomic status, educational

attainment, physical environment, occupation, and social support system. According to this

article, racial and gender inequalities, as well as the social determinants of health, can all have an

impact on the health of individuals and populations.

People's health is influenced by their socioeconomic and social circumstances. Poor

health knowledge, stigmas, and racism contribute to the widening disparity in health outcomes

between different groups. People with low incomes have greater death, sickness, and disability

rates than the general population (Syme & Berkman, 1976). The term "social determinants of

health" encompasses a wide range of elements that impact the health of individuals. Low-income

households, poor housing, and racial issues are all factors that contribute to overcrowding, poor

housing conditions, and lack of adequate medical treatment. There is a direct correlation between

health and wealth. A person's social environment can exacerbate or even cause certain ailments,

such as obesity and mental illness. Socially disadvantaged people are twice as likely to develop a

health issue. Location, income, education and access to specialized treatments are all mentioned

in this list. In the long run, stress and worry brought on by a negative social environment can

lead to physical health problems. Even those who have easy access to high-quality medical care
 3

are at risk of ill health because of their use of tobacco, alcohol, and stressful occupations. Lack of

access to clinical medicine is termed structural violence, and it results from social determinants

(Farmer, Nizeye, Stulac, & Keshavjee, 2006).

Another difficulty is that while examining the political economy of illness, the poor are

rarely considered, while those in authority are perpetually in charge. Manufacturers of unhealthy

foods, sugar producers, advertisers, and lobbyists target the poor to maximise profits. According

to McKinlay, social scientists have paid less attention to the political economy of disease. The

upstream population, mostly composed of high-ranking persons, receives substantially more care

than the downstream population, consisting primarily of the common people. For-profit

corporations greatly outnumber all other types of healthcare providers in the United States.

Regrettably, governments prefer to grant manufacturing permits to those who create illnesses

over those who seek to prevent them.

 Racism may also have a role in the initiation of sickness. In a well-organized system of

racism, based on the belief in one's inferiority, people are divided into "races," given positions in

the social hierarchy, and then given preferential treatment because of this belief in one's inherent

superiority. Racism is often characterized by racial prejudice and discrimination. Institutions and

practices founded on racism endure, despite having dropped dramatically among people of

different races and cultures. Even people who are not prejudiced are influenced by negative

racial stereotypes when they engage in discriminatory conduct. Inequalities in

housing, socioeconomic status, and access to essential products and services can have serious

consequences for the health of people of different races and ethnicities (Williams & Mohammed,

2013). Restricting access to medical treatment is one way that discrimination can harm a person's

health.  Residential segregation has a detrimental impact on SES and fitness because it limits
 4

access to education and work, undervalues the economic value of a certain SES level, and

concentrates the health-damaging factors in residential areas. Adults and children are at greater

risk of death and disease due to racial segregation. People's struggles to lead healthy lives are

exacerbated when they live in poverty or segregated neighbourhoods. As a result of the high cost

of groceries and poor quality, there is a link between poverty and poor nutrition. The higher

stress levels in people's lives, homes, and communities are linked to bigger concentrations of the

poor, as are economic hardship and other forms of chronic and acute stress. As a result of

institutional neglect and underfunding, communities of colour and those in poverty continue to

suffer. Because of the city's physical environment and infrastructure deterioration, toxic

contaminants are disproportionately exposed to persons. A wide range of goods and services can

be unavailable to some people due to a combination of institutional and individual

discrimination. Discrimination harms both the quality and the length of time that healthcare

services are delivered.

Disease risk is also affected by one's gender and sexual orientation. Men and women

have diverse immune systems, rendering them more or less susceptible to infectious diseases and

responding to immunizations in various ways, respectively. Adult females' innate and adaptive

immunological responses are typically larger than those of adult males, regardless of gender

(Snow, 2008). Females are more capable of clearing pathogens and administering vaccines than

men, raising their risk of developing inflammation and autoimmunity. In addition, a person's

performance affects their health. All-male or all-female recreational options It is possible that the

stigma and discrimination associated with gender-based issues, such as female infertility and

domestic abuse, or male disordered sexual functioning, increases a person's susceptibility to

 5

illness. One example of the alarming health disparities between the sexes: males are more likely

than women to be injured on the job and have less access to health care.

References
 6

Snow, R. C. (2008). Sex, gender, and vulnerability. Global Public Health, 3(S1), 58-74.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17441690801902619

Syme, S. L., & Berkman, L. F. (1976). Social class, susceptibility and sickness. American

journal of epidemiology, 104(1), 1-8.

Williams, D. R., & Mohammed, S. A. (2013). Racism and health I: Pathways and scientific

evidence. American behavioral scientist, 57(8), 1152-1173.

John, M. (1986). A Case for Refocusing Upstream: The Political Economy of Illness. The

Sociology of Health and Illness: Critical Perspectives.

Farmer, P. E., Nizeye, B., Stulac, S., & Keshavjee, S. (2006). Structural violence and clinical

medicine. PLoS medicine, 3(10), e449.