Factors affecting the patterns of ill health and inequalities in the UK

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Factors affecting the patterns of ill health and inequalities in the UK

There has been a significant improvement in the UK's health status since the 19th Century. Since the NHS started in 1948, we are now living longer and healthier than ever before, therefore fewer deaths; ‘Death rates in England have been falling over the last century, from a crude death rate of 18 per thousand people in 1896 to 11 per thousand in 1996.’

-Acheson Report

A reasoning for the inequality gap decrease over the years, is the change that has been made regarding the extremely low and the extremely high social classes. The less wealthy have the governments help with housing, benefits, healthcare. No one is in the same state as the poor would have been years ago.

It still stands, however, that some socio-economic groups are struggling. The improvements that have been made have not benefited everyone in the same fair and equal way. It is proven that lower social class groups have a higher rate of mortality and morbidity, correlating with numerous factors. Class, education, race, age, location, gender etc are all being shown in some way to have some effect on death and illness statistics within the UK.

The above table is taken from The Black Report. It shows death rates according to social class and gender in people aged 15 to 64 years. It is relevant to England and Wales 1971. The table shows that men have a significantly higher death rate than the women from the same social class, almost double the rate. However, this is unreliable, as the females recorded in this table are those who are married and therefore belong to the same social class as their husband, regardless of their occupation and what class they would then be in.

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It shows that the rate of death in (I) is 3.98 and 2.15, whereas in (V), the death rates are dramatically higher; 9.88 and 5.31.

How mortality ranges from different regions of the UK

Also from The Black Report, is this table showing mortality rates differ from different regions.  The South East is shown to have a lower rate of mortality, and the East Midlands has the highest.

Life expectancy and health is not equal across the country. 'People living in different socioeconomic environments face very different risks of ill health and death' - http://www.statistics.gov.uk/statbase/product.asp?vlnk=1382. ...

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