There is much evidence that shows that a person’s socioeconomic position, early life circumstances, social exclusion, social capital, employment and work, housing and residential environment has an enormous impact upon their health. These elements make up the key social determinants of health in Australia.
Ten facts about social determinants and health inequalities
- The 20% of Australians living in the lowest socioeconomic areas in 2014–15 were 1.6 times as likely as the highest 20% to have at least two chronic health conditions, such as heart disease and diabetes (ABS 2015a).
- Australians living in the lowest socioeconomic areas lived about 3 years less than those living in the highest areas in 2009–2011 (NHPA 2013).
- If all Australians had the same death rates as people living in the highest socioeconomic areas in 2009–2011, overall mortality rates would have reduced by 13%—and there would have been 54,000 fewer deaths (AIHW 2014d).
- People reporting the worst mental and physical health (those in the bottom 20%) in 2006 were twice as likely to live in a poor-quality or overcrowded dwelling (Mallett et al. 2011).
- Mothers in the lowest socioeconomic areas were 30% more likely to have a low birthweight baby than mothers in the highest socioeconomic areas in 2013 (AIHW 2015a).
- A higher proportion of people with an employment restriction due to a disability lived in the lowest socioeconomic areas (26%) than in the highest socioeconomic areas (12%) in 2012 (AIHW analysis of ABS 2012 Survey of Disability, Ageing and Carers).
- Unemployed people were 1.6 times as likely to use cannabis, 2.4 times as likely to use meth/amphetamines and 1.8 times as likely to use ecstasy as employed people in 2013 (AIHW 2014e).
- Dependent children living in the lowest socioeconomic areas in 2013 were 3.6 times as likely to be exposed to tobacco smoke inside the home as those living in the highest socioeconomic areas (7.2% compared with 2.0%) (AIHW analysis of the 2013 National Drug Strategy Household Survey).
- People in low economic resource households spend proportionally less on medical and health care than other households (3.0% and 5.1% of weekly equivalised expenditure, respectively, in 2009–10) (ABS 2012).
- People living in the lowest socioeconomic areas in 2014–15 were more than twice as likely to delay seeing—or not see—a dental professional due to cost compared with those living in the highest socioeconomic areas (28% compared with 12%) (ABS 2015b).
Action on the social determinants of health is often seen as the most appropriate way to address health inequalities, with the prospect of better health for all across the entire social gradient (CSDH 2008). One study has estimated that half a million Australians could be spared chronic illness, $2.3 billion in annual hospital costs saved, and Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme prescriptions cut by 5.3 million, if the health gaps between the most and least disadvantaged were closed (Brown et al. 2012).
Source
https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/australias-health/australias-health-2016/contents/determinants