Some aspects of your health are determined at conception, including most significantly, how long you can expect to live. Other influences occur during your mother's pregnancy, such as having enough oxygen coming into your developing body and not being exposed to alcohol or other drugs. We are very vulnerable during the first year; compared to children ages 5-14, infants have a death rate 40 times greater. Most of us do survive that first year, though the odds are much scarier in poor nations such as Afghanistan, where infants die at a rate 25 times greater than in the U.S.
From childhood through adolescence and into adulthood, we are impacted by our lifestyles (e.g. smoking, exercise, safety habits), by our access to medical and other human services, and our physical and social surroundings. Social surroundings can be very supportive. For example, if people belong to a church, synagogue, mosque or temple, and participate in a congregation, their health will usually be better than those not so connected. On the other hand, many people are lacking in community and social support, and this results in selectively higher rates of death and disease.
Consider this slide:
It shows U.S. cancer deaths by racial group. Asians and Hispanics have lower cancer deaths while whites are in a middle range, with African Americans having the highest rates. The question is, why is there such a huge gap between groups, and why don't all groups have the lowest rates? Though it is impossible to make the cancer death rate be zero, we ought to be able to achieve the same low rate for all. Unfortunately, almost no progress has been made to make health equal for all. Even in cases where death rates have come down for all, the mortality gap between the highest and lowest has not narrowed. So what causes health inequality?
To be continued....
No comments:
Post a Comment