Barriers to Health Maintenance and Disease Prevention

Barriers to Health Maintenance and Disease Prevention Redante Castro Introduction: There are many factors that interfere with health equity and the ability of the patients to get their healthcare needs met. Whether people are healthy or not, is determined by their circumstances and environment. There are challenges that a patient and healthcare providers encounters in securing and providing health services. These social determinants of health, such as income, education, transportation, housing, and race or ethnicity, have powerful influence on a patient’s life long before they arrive at a hospital or clinic. According to literature, persistent social exclusion and inequities in wealth distribution and in access and use of services are reflected in health outcomes. Social exclusions and inequity are obstacles to human development. It poses barriers to poverty reduction strategies. It hinders social unity and improved health conditions of the populations. Social exclusion and inequity are further compounded by racial and gende r discrimination. There are health disadvantages due to differences between segments of populations or between societies. There are health gaps arising from the differences between the worse-off and everyone else. Lastly, there are health gradients relating to differences across spectrum of the population. Studies have shown that the poorest of the poor have the worst health. This is also a global phenomenon, seen in low, middle, and high income countries. Within countries, studies showed that a person with low socioeconomic position has worse health- this is the social gradient of health. The poorest have the highest mortality rates. Improvements in income and education has a positive effect on health. One’s occupation is also relevant to health in terms of workplace risks exposure and its role in positioning the person along a society’s hierarchy. There is also demographic transition to consider that affects health, i.e., increasing life expectancy, increasing number of youths, growing number of elderly persons in the population, increased migration, and rapid urban growth. Population distribution and population age structure are crucial determinants of social, economic, and health-related services. For example, people in poverty are likely to be exposed to higher level of stress, economic uncertainty, and unhealthy conditions than their wealthier countrymen. It was recognized by some policymakers and stakeholders that the population’s health cannot be sustained by focusing solely on the financing and distribution of medical services. A more comprehensive and integrated strategies are necessary to foster health in all policies. An approach that integrate considerations of health, well-being, and equity in the development, implementation, and evaluation of policies and services. Determinants of health are being acknowledged and incorporated into health reform processes and policy changes are made. Examples of these policy changes are: reg ulation of alcohol and tobacco products, the expansion of healthier transportation systems (bicycle paths, pedestrian-friendly roads, and pathways), improvement in air and water quality, expansion of primary health care services, and improvements in nutrition programs. This new focus has helped divert the emphasis away from individual lifestyles and from a focus on disease towards broader determinants and actions that created a big impact on population health. However, it is probably fair to say that all community issues are political to some degree. For example, if a factory is poisoning town water system with its effluent and poisonous waste, local officials are faced with the choice of not dealing with the actual cause of the problem, i.e., the dumping of waste and endangering citizen’s health, or addressing the dumping and endangering citizen’s job. Differences of political opinion can have enormous consequences in the health of the community.