Critical Thinking 1

Task A

Summary

Working in different sectors poses risks at different levels where the employees will be affected

differently. According to Alqahtani et al. (2020), the rate at which the employees are exposed to

the risk factors of possible injury determines the number of reported work-related injuries in the

sector. As shown in the source where the Labour Force Survey shows employees in the Human

Health and Social Works record high in work-related injuries and in the Education, sector have

lower rates of injuries. The argument in the data provided that 1.9% of workers in the Human

health and social activities high injury rate can be reasoned by the correlation of the main

variable in the sectors which are closer to risk factors and the population with the interactions

where people in Human health and social works are more exposed. Though the effects of the

non-fatal work-related injuries do affect performance in the other sectors, it is clear that issues

are chain-linked thus close-related sectors will have almost the same rates where the differences

are decreasing in small margins that can be interpretated in terms of contact closes in the

different sectors.

Task B

Can Health Issues be the Reason for the Increased COPD Rates in Northern England?

As the data from the UK Parliament, the data is considered to be more reliable than any other

sources. Data reliability from the UK government databases is more validated and before

exposure to the general public, the data is clean and accurate. The data is considered to be more

updated since it was lastly updated in 2019. The data is collected from public and private health

facilities thus more data is validated hence reliable. COPD cases in the UK have increased with
Critical Thinking 2

increased from 2016 in England with a rate of 1.6% which has led to the divide between southern

and northern England (Tzitzikos et al., 2019).

Northern England has the higher COPD rate where 2.9% were explained to the increased use of

tobacco products where data from the Tobacco Control Plan where indicated a 12.2% of the

population are the main risk factors in contracting COPD issues and compared to asthma which

is mainly caused by allergies (Polosa et al., 2020). Explaining the rates of COPD rates using the

behavioural changes in the financial settings or standards where the area in the highly deprived

areas which is the north of England will be more exposed to the risks of contracting COPD

causing the North-South dived in England (Pérez, 2019). As indicated in the British Lung

Foundation statistics, in 2012 had an increased rate of COPD cases where males were the most

affected which can be related to men consuming more tobacco products.

Fig.1 Graph of age distribution in COPD cases in the UK.

Critical Thinking 3

Statistically, the average rate of the highest deprived region is Northern England corresponds to

2.5% prevalence and southern England which is 1.3%. According to Barrett and Barrett (2021),

the rates of cases of asthma and dementia are close which contributes to the divide in the country.

According to Ramos et al.(2019), cases of COPD contribute to the increased risk of increasing

the divide since still asthma is an agent which contributes to contracting COPD alongside genetic

disorders. The issue of the North-South divide has more connections with the lifestyle where

more awareness on the use of tobacco, and improve on the living standards of the elderly who

are the main affected people contributing to the highest percentages where persons 0ver 71 years

has the largest population causing the class divide where the more productive citizens will be

located in the southern productive part in the UK(Moffat, A., Cook, E. and Chater, 2022).

A recommendation in reducing the divide increasing more developments in the contribution to

increasing the number of productive persons in northern England. According to Polosa et al.

(2020), new technology like e-cigars has more direct evidence in more awareness of lifestyle

measures and better health facilities which are a result of the development results in reduced

COPD. New technologies like electronic cigars have helped people reduce or quit caffeine

addition which will reduce the chances of contacting COPD which will in the end help reduce

the effects as evident in the research conducted in the UK where there was a 16.7% reduction in

the cigarette addition(Snell et al., 2019). This will have a positive in improving lifestyle practices

which will reduce the North-South divide and reduce COPD cases in Northern England.
Critical Thinking 4

References

Moffat, A., Cook, E. and Chater, A., 2022. Examining the influences on the use of behavioural

science within UK local authority public health: Qualitative thematic analysis and deductive

mapping to the COM-B model and Theoretical Domains Framework.

Ramos, M., Lamotte, M., Gerlier, L., Svangren, P., Miquel-Cases, A., and Haughney, J. (2019).

Cost-effectiveness of physical activity in the management of COPD patients in the

UK. International journal of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, 14, 227.

Barrett, R. and Barrett, R., 2021. Asthma and COPD medicines prescription-claims: A time-

series analysis of England’s national prescriptions during the COVID-19 pandemic (Jan 2019 to

Oct 2020). Expert Review of Respiratory Medicine, 15(12), pp.1605-1612.

Pérez, S.A., 2019. A Europe of creditor and debtor states: explaining the north/south divide in the

Eurozone. West European Politics, 42(5), pp.989-1014.

Schürer, K. and Day, J., 2019. Migration to London and the development of the north–south

divide, 1851–1911. Social History, 44(1), pp.26-56.

Tzitzikos, G., Kotrotsiou, E., Bonotis, K. and Gourgoulianis, K., 2019. Assessing hostility in

patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Psychology, Health &

Medicine, 24(5), pp.605-619.

Polosa, R., Morjaria, J. B., Prosperini, U., Busà, B., Pennisi, A., Malerba, M., ... and Caponnetto,

P. (2020). COPD smokers who switched to e-cigarettes: health outcomes at 5-year follow

up. Therapeutic Advances in Chronic Disease, 11, 2040622320961617.

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Snell, N., Gibson, J., Jarrold, I., & Quint, J. K. (2019). Epidemiology of bronchiectasis in the

UK: Findings from the British lung foundation’s ‘Respiratory health of the

nation’project. Respiratory medicine, 158, 21-23.

Appendix

Fig.1

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) statistics | British Lung Foundation (blf.org.uk)
Critical Thinking 6

Human health and social work activities statistics in Great Britain, 2021

Work-related injuries

The Labour Force Survey is HSE's preferred data source for non-fatal injuries. The
estimates show that in Human health and social work activities there were:

• 82,000 cases of non-fatal work-related injury.

• 36% involved over three days absence and 30% over seven days absence.

Source LFS, estimated annual average 2018/19-2020/21

Human health and social work activities compared to industries with similar
work activities
• Around 1.9% of workers in this sector suffered from an injury.

• This rate is not statistically different than that for workers across all industries
(1.7%).