The Social group to which people belong can influence their health and Essay

The Social group to which people belong can influence their health and their quality of care - Essay Example eals that ethnic minority groups are increasing quickly in number, (this may be attributes to some immigration and to differences in fertility rates) and account for 73 per cent of Britain’s overall population growth. The trend among minority ethnic groups is to concentrate in urban areas, in particular London. The table below, as available from the Office for National Statistics, will help us understand the distribution of the population of UK into different ethnic groups. Research has shown that minority groups suffer from worse health and have also a lower level of health consciousness. The social class to which a person belongs seems to be the overriding factor in determining the level of health he enjoys and the healthcare he receives. Studies underline the differences that exist in the incidence of ill health depending on the social class. It has been noticed that there are higher incidences of infective and parasitic diseases (like pneumonia), violence and poisonings among lower social classes where the victims often even include children. Adults in these classes are more likely to suffer from cancer, heart disease and respiratory disease than Whites belonging to a more affluent class. a. There are a higher proportion of smokers among minority ethnic groups. Due to their social disadvantage there is more likelihood that they have grown up in a household with exposure to tobacco smoke and they become smokers at a very young age. This happens when the brain is still developing and causes irreversible developmental changes. Awareness to the negative effects of nicotine is very low among these groups. b. Health care inequality has been found to be based on ethnicity differences rather on the disparities in religion. The areas in which the study was carried out had a high percentage of Muslim population (53%) mostly of African, Pakistani and Bangladeshi origin. There is clear evidence of higher smoking rates among men in this population and higher