Impact of Social Determinants of Health on Students - Paper Example

Introduction

Health is an integral part of life, and our activities, foods we eat, neighborhoods we live in, our workplaces, and our homes form a significant part of our wellbeing (Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion(ODPHP), 2020). Certain conditions in the environment in which people are born, work, worship, play, and age that affect the quality of life and health are the social determinants of health. With the onset of the novel Coronavirus disease, most preventive actions have been undertaken. These actions are linked to the social determinants of health (SDH). In my community, for instance, access to healthcare and primary care, access to healthy foods, physical environmental factors, and economic factors significantly and directly affect students along with the stringent measures taken to curb the spread of Covid-19.

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Neighborhood and Built Environment

Food is an essential human need. Consumption of healthy foods gives one a low-risk level against chronic illnesses. Apparently, within the community, children have resorted to consuming fast foods that do not form a part of healthy foods. Due to Covid-19 movement restrictions, kids or their parents cannot access the groceries under shortage or fruit vendors, so they request food from fast-food restaurants. According to Burström (2020), poor dieting is associated with hypertension, cancer, CVD, and diabetes, which places the children at a higher risk level considering the virus needs the best of immunity, especially for children who are at higher infection risks.

Factors such as air quality, pollution, water quality, and housing are a part of the community. Being a minority group means the community inhabits a congested location with higher exposure to airborne particles such as carbon, aluminum, chlorine, and other water and air pollution forms. Since these particles can carry the virus, it places every community member at the risk of infection. With polluted water, it merely means the community lacks adequate water to ensure hygiene standards for the congested population to avoid Covid-19. Consequently, where there is congestion with high poverty levels, crime is likely to thrive, making streets insecure.

Economic Factors

Jobs, according to Evans (2020), are an essential factor in income generation. Nevertheless, within the community, the inhabitants are low-income members, which means that most cannot afford enough and healthy food and proper housing. They lack other benefits such as leaves and health insurance making healthcare services unaffordable. Other basic needs, such as education, equally become impossible. Since schools are closed, most students are taking virtual classes. Nevertheless, for students living within this community, paying for virtual classes or possing infrastructure for these classes is an impossibility with the low incomes. This pressure could lead to stress-related conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, and CVD increasing the risk of Covid-19.

Service Factors

High poverty levels caused by low-income earning is a direct cause of the lack of better health services. The primary barriers to healthcare include lack of transportation mean to facilities, lack of health insurance, and limited healthcare resources (Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 2020). Since reluctance to seek medical services is associated with status, members of this community are put in the risk of not being screened for chronic diseases. Poor health conditions make it even harder for the community to have social support. Additionally, if the community is unsafe due to crimes, it becomes harder to have social cohesion. During this time, however, I have had the opportunity to volunteer to work at a high school to help minor health requirements.

Social Environment

With the congestion in such a minority community, there is a chance to create social networks because people without incomes and food cannot stay locked in their houses. However, this places the community members at risk of being infected with the Coronavirus since no rules of social distancing and hygiene will possibly be observed.

References

Burström, B., & Tao, W. (2020). Social determinants of health and inequalities in COVID-19.

Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. About Social Determinants of Health (SDOH). Cdc.gov. (2020). Retrieved 25 September 2020, from https://www.cdc.gov/socialdeterminants/about.html.

Evans, O. (2020). Socio-economic impacts of novel Coronavirus: The policy solutions. BizEcons Quarterly, 7, 3-12.

Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. (2020). Social Determinants of Health | Healthy People 2020. Healthypeople.gov. Retrieved 25 September 2020, from https://www.healthypeople.gov/2020/topics-objectives/topic/social-determinants-of-health.