Social Factors Influencing Individual Health and Well-being: Work and Employment

Explain what key determining social factors are currently influencing an individual health and wellbeing, drawing on statistical data, focusing on “work and unemployment

Table of Content                                                                                                                                                                           Page

1. Introduction …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….…………………………. 3
2. Some arguments on influence of social determinants on individual health and some preventive

measures put in place to address the Issue ………………………………………………………………………………………………..  3

3. Conclusion ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….………………………  5
4. References …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….……………………  6

Table of Figure

1. Figure 1.  The 2011 Workplace Employment Relations Study: First Findings (3^rd edition),

                  Department for Business Innovation &Skills ……….…………………………………………….……………………….  4

1. Introduction

Michael Marmot (2013) inferred that the environment we were born and grew in plays a major role on individual health. He furthermore stated that youth not in Employment,  Education or Training is a call for concern and on the other hand, ONS reported that the highest unemployment rate in the UK were in the North East and Yorkshire and the Humber at approximately 5.0% compare the West Midlands which was at 4.9%. the region with the lowest unemployment rate was South West 2.9% and East England 3.2%. Being healthy means different thing to different people that is what make its definition challenging to say and it brings us to the definition that health is socially constructed. Being in employment supposed to give us peace of mind however social inequality is greatly impacting on our health.

2. Some arguments on influence of social determinants on individual health and some preventive measures put in place to address the Issue.

The social determinants of health is the context in which individual is born, grew, age, work. The social determinant of health are mainly tied to health inequalities (WHO, 2018). The meaning of HEALTH can be differently interpreted by each and one of us. According to Aggleton (1990), “health is something than can be bought or sold or given “. Lee and McCormick (2004) inferred that by increasing health surely end up in quality of life being raised up, in other word health is defined as quality of life. Unemployed person will not be able to afford a good quality of life due to a lack of finance. PHE (2011) is there to make the public aware of the wider determinant of health and if possible reduce the negative impact social determinant of health is causing to individual in particular work and unemployment.

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According to the social model of health, health is widely determined by the social class, political, environmental, economic, cultural without forgetting to mention the  biological (Earle, 2007a); which suggests that ill health is caused by the factors that influenced the outer physical body. The wider determinants of health are structurally engendered by poverty, social interaction, inequality, behaviour. The conception of health is viewed as being  socially formed. In line with what social model of health suggested, the working environment pause a threat to one’s healthy state.

We need to begin to have some understanding on why condition like poverty impacts on our health  to remedy the problem. According to Fryer (1992), poverty should be place in the centre of the question. Poverty is one factor that socially determine individual health. According to McLoone(1996), the majority in number of suicide rates found in Scotland between 1981 and 1993 focussed on deprived young people whose suicide rates estimated to be twice compared to those young people in affluent areas; it was equally found in Britain an increase in suicide rate between young men which was related to social deprivation, living alone, unemployment. WHO (World Health Organisation) suggested that “extreme poverty is the most serious cause of disease, with 70% of deaths in developing countries attributable to five causes that can easily and cheaply combated”. Poverty is the centre of social determinant of health because poor people will not be able to afford a day to day basic materials to sustain themselves which lead to health inequality issue and raising up the mortality rate.

According to Michael Marmot, before trying to reduce health inequalities we need to focus tackling social inequality, our social position determine our health equality which means people with low social class face health inequality issue. Health inequality makes a  significant contribution in individual life expectancy. In line with the “public health timebomb”, sir Marmot suggested that by reducing the inequality in health will have a positive impact on individual health. ONS reported that 1.38 million people in the UK are willing to go

into employment. Furthermore 8.74 million people aged 16-64 are NEET. 21.2% of the population were economically inactive. In addition, there has been an increase in the average weekly earning by 3.2% excluding bonus and 3.0% include bonus compare to the early years.

Work can be benefit health but also it can negatively impact on health. In accordance with the health and safety (2012), stress, anxiety and depression – muscle skeletal conditions were linked to employment suggests that employment can be associated with ill health. Nevertheless, NICE (2012) states that workplaces can be make healthier place by physical activity programme demonstrate to minimise staff sickness levels.

Shorter working hours were sound to increase job satisfaction and decrease levels of stress (European review, 2012), but within the UK an average working hours were the longest in Europe (i bid). The scope of using initiative was linked to job satisfaction (workplace employment relations study, 2011) compare to level of pay in both 2004 and 2011.

Figure 1

Source: The 2011 Workplace Employment Relations Study: First Findings (3^rd edition), Department for Business Innovation &Skills

UK recession (2007) environment lead to increase in unemployment which is linked to the increase in the number of suicide rate (Barr. B et al, 2012).

During the recession years (2008), there was an increase in the number of unemployment which was lead to an increase in the number of suicides in men by 7% and  in women by 8%, which is linking to what Marmot inferred that, the environment in which one lives has an impact on his/her health.

According to Rodgers (1991), the MRC’s (1946) cohort study showed a decrease in the correlation among unemployment and psychological signs in both men and women thereafter the regulation of the financial difficulties. As stated by Stewart (2001) unemployment raised the mortality rate. Furthermore, unemployment impacts on men’s mental health and on top of that men’s family responsibility plays a huge role on the jobless mental health state.

In accordance with the health and safety statistic (2012), 22.1 million working days were lost in 2010/2011 linked to work related ill health.

As reported by the Office for National Statistic, the principal purpose of sickness was minor illnesses however the majority of the number of days that was lost was due to musculoskeletal l issues.

By preventing health issue further in a workplace, some actions need to be in place. For instance according to NICE (2012),  by making sure that workplace is healthy will reduce sickness absence, boost the local economy, improve employee morale, improve staff retention and have fewer injuries and work accidents.

In order to tackle unemployment health issues, some policy were put in place; Charities for the relief of unemployment  aimed to help relief the load of unemployment individual face by asking their trustees or promoters to take part in some activities which can contribute in the aim of the organisation. Activities suck as  giving advice and training to unemployed person regarding employment, self-employment, establishing co-operative enterprise, helping in Cv writing, giving unemployed practical support in assisting with travel fare, accommodation and childcare facilities; supplying capital grant or equipment to engage in new business.

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UKCES (2011) was aimed to go over evidence on quality and quantity of low paid work; examine the evidence on the function of pre-employment training in assisting people move from benefit into low paid work; suggest future policy enhancement that might develop sustainability and progression; to review the kind of training that are furthermost successful in assisting people to go into employment; to analyse the data on the part of upskilling in pull people out of low pay-no pay chain into a stable job with progress and was link to the Marmot review.

3. Conclusion

We need to work harder to tackle the issue at hand which is the influence social determinants of health particularly work and unemployment has on individual life. As Marmot stated youth unemployment is public health timebound, our youth are the future so if no action is taken properly into account, then no future is guarranti. Our local authorities need to look deep into the prevention and insuring that we have  not only work but healthy workplace as well. According to ONS, 1.38 % of the population are jobseekers and 21.1% of the population were economically inactive. The biggest influence as we have seen in male suicide rate in the UK. Barr et al (2010). As supported by Michael Marmot, the environment in which one was born or grew in impacts on his/her health, in that context we cannot attribute health responsibility rather social responsibility since social factors influence on individual health. By putting prevention into place such as “healthy lives, healthy people” which aim is to tackle health inequalities in the population and to increase people life expectancy by helping them live longer, healthier. A charity was set in place to help employee that is suffering from musculoskeletal and mental illness by creating a suitable work spaces to them. (PHE, 2017) One needs to consider the social role which bring me to the conclusion that health is socially constructed.

References

• Barr B et al. (2012) Suicides associated with the 2008-10 economic recession in England: time trend analysis. BMJ 345:5142
• Charity commission (1999) charities for the relief of unemployment [internet] available from: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/358874/rr3text.pdf (accessed on 02.12.18)
• HM Government (2010) healthy lives, healthy people: our strategy for public health England [internet] available from: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/216096/dh_127424.pdf (accessed on 05.12.18)
• Office for National Statistic (2018) UK labour market statistic [internet] available from: https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/bulletins/uklabourmarket/november2018 (accessed on 02.12.18)
• Public health England (2018) wider determinant of health [internet] available from: https://fingertips.phe.org.uk/profile/wider-determinants (accessed on 02.12.18)
• Public health England (2017) supporting musculoskeletal (MSK) health at work [internet] available from: https://www.gov.uk/government/case-studies/supporting-musculoskeletal-msk-health-at-work (accessed on 05.12.18)
• The Guardian (2013) Britain told social inequalities has created “public health timebomb” [internet] available from: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/oct/30/britain-inequality-public-health-timebomb-marmot (accessed on 01.12.18)
• UK Commission for Employment and Skills (2011) the role of skills from worklessness to sustainable employment with progress [internet] available from: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/306143/Worklessness_to_sustainable_employment__the_role_of_skills.pdf (accessed on 02.12.18)
• Workplace employment relations study(2011) first finding: department of business innovation and skill, 3^rd edition
• World Health Organisation (2018) social determinants of health [internet] available from: http://www.who.int/social_determinants/sdh_definition/en/ (accessed on 04^th.12.18)
• Marmot, M. and Wilkinson, R. (2006) editors, social determinants of health (2^nd edition) Oxford University Press: Oxford