Discussion

    You are responsible for responding to 2 of your classmates 

• Stay on topic. While      discussion is encouraged, rambling and tangential conversations do not      make postings substantive and are not be conducive to a quality learning      experience. 
• Use appropriate subject lines in your      replies. As a conversation evolves, it’s helpful to change the subject line      of a threaded message to reflect the changing topic.
• Add multiple comments directly into      messages in your replies. While a straight-forward reply is usually      appropriate, interspersing your comments throughout an original posting      may be more effective if you wish to respond to multiple points. For      example, interspersing ***multiple*** comments in the body of the      original message ***like this*** increases the readability of a      response that addresses various points.
• Avoid ”I agree” and ”Me, too!”      messages. Spending time reading messages without substance can be      frustrating for all parties.
• Avoid the use of all caps. (IT’S LIKE      SHOUTING!) Use caps occasionally for strong emphasis, but only for      individual words.
• Avoid writing errors, even when      “talking” with one another. Messages in the Main forums      can be at times conversational and informal. Nonetheless, you should check      your spelling and grammar and write in an appropriate manner. 
• Carefully choose the format for your      messages. Long paragraphs are difficult to follow on-screen. As a general      rule, limit each paragraph to five to seven lines. Avoid fonts that are      difficult to read because of style, color, or size.  

Student 1

Social Determinants of Health and their Effects on Health Outcomes

The social determinants of health are the societal factors that influence people’s health. Specifically, they include conditions in the environments which in which individuals are born, brought up, play, live, work, worship, and age (HealthyPeople, n.d.). As usual, these conditions affect health outcomes in diverse ways. Examples of social determinants of health include access to health care services, availability of resources such as food and housing, social support, community-based resources such as recreational facilities, access to and quality of education, access to economic and employment opportunities, culture, access to mass media and new technologies, poverty, crime, violence, and so on (HealthyPeople, n.d.). 

   Access to health care services influences health outcomes in the sense that diseases are prevented and treated. Lack of health care services aggravates even minor illnesses leading to suffering and deaths. Higher income and social status are associated with improved health while jobless and poor people live in poor health conditions. That means the greater the gap between the wealthy and poorer members of the society, the bigger the difference in health (WHO, 2019). Regarding the availability of social support networks, enhanced support from friends, families, colleagues and communities is linked to improved health while lack of social support is associated with poor health (WHO, 2019). Meanwhile, poor standards of education are associated with poor health while negative cultural practices such as female genital mutilation and other beliefs lead to bad health. People in employment are healthier while those who can access resources such as safe water, unpolluted air, safe houses, and good transport network such as better roads also experience improved health (WHO, 2019). Crime, violence, and lack of access to the emerging technologies such as the internet and mobile phones also contribute to poor health.

References

(HealthyPeople. (n.d.). Social determinants of health. Retrieved from https://www.healthypeople.gov/2020/topics-objectives/topics/social-determinants-of- health  

World Health Organization (WHO). (2019). The determinants of health. Retrieved from https://www.who.int/hia/evidence/doh/en/ 

 Student 2

What I find most interesting about social determinants of health and its effect on health outcomes is how access to medical care has minimal impact.  I always associated access to healthcare with having a greater impact on health outcomes.  According to Magnan (2017) “As a determinant of health, medical care is insufficient for ensuring better health outcomes” (p. 1). 

A lot of the literature seems to agree that socioeconomic factors play a larger role.  Since education, income and family support are major players for better health outcomes, it would make sense to focus on our youth with early prevention education and encouragement promoting ongoing education.  

Early prevention education is key and should begin at a young age to help improve socioeconomic factors and encourage healthy behaviors such as diet and exercise. This type of early prevention may deter youth from engaging in behaviors which are proven to have a negative impact on our health such as tobacco use, alcohol use and unsafe sex practices.