5.2.1

Social Class

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Inequalities in Health Care Chances by Social Class

Health care chances refers to the chances people have of enjoying a long and healthy disease-free life. Official statistics repeatedly show a significant divide between the health of people in different social classes.

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Effects of social inequality

  • Social inequality affects health chances in a number of ways, including:
    • Social cohesion (the extent to which people stick together and identify with each other/a sense of community):
      • Social inequality creates social divisions which, in turn, negatively impacts health.
    • Social deprivation:
      • The poor suffer more with ill-health than the rich.
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Effects of social inequality cont.

  • Status syndrome suggests that people can suffer ill-health as a result of their anxiety regarding their status in society, leading to lowered self-esteem.
  • Those lower down the status hierarchy suffer more stress as a result of not feeling respected by those higher up.
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Health outcomes

  • When comparing the health outcomes of poorer people with richer people, those who are poorer tend to:
    • Get sick more often.
    • Suffer more serious diseases.
    • Have more years in poor health.
    • Die younger.
    • Face the greater risk of having babies that are stillborn, premature and underweight.
    • Have a higher infant mortality rate.

Explanation for Social Class Inequalities in Health

There are four main explanations for social class inequalities in health: artefact, natural and social selection, cultural and behavioural, and material and structural explanations.

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Artefact explanations

  • Artefact explanations argue that differences in health outcomes are the result of methods of measurement that artificially inflate differences.
  • Sociologists reject this explanation, citing that social class inequalities remain even after several different methods have been applied.
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Natural and social selection explanations

  • Natural and social selection explanations claim that ill-health results in people being in a lower social class, employing a ‘survival of the fittest’ view that those who are weaker and sicker are naturally more likely to end up at the bottom of the social hierarchy.
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Cultural and behavioural explanations

  • Cultural and behavioural explanations suggest that poor health is due to unhealthy lifestyles and people not looking after themselves properly, as well as different attitudes and values such as fatalism and immediate gratification.
  • However, evidence from the Black Report and Health Divide found that class differences in health remain even when cultural and lifestyle factors are considered.
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Material and structural explanations

  • Material and structural explanations blame the capitalist system for health inequalities.
  • They claim those who have poorer health are also those who are the most materially disadvantaged, such as poor housing and living/working conditions.

Jump to other topics

1Theory & Methods

2Education with Methods in Context

3Option 1: Culture & Identity

4Option 1: Families & Households

5Option 1: Health

6Option 1: Work, Poverty & Welfare

7Option 2: Beliefs in Society

8Option 2: Global Development

9Option 2: The Media

10Crime & Deviance

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