Introduction

The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the impact of social determinants of health (SDOH) on health inequality using the three different artifacts. Social determinants of health such as gender, social class, education, and economic status contribute to the health and wellbeing of people, also there is a link between these SDOH such as social class and health inequalities. Considering the fact that social equity is essential for the social health and wellbeing of the community government has been optimistic and focuses on improving the wellbeing of the population by reducing the gaps of social class, and unequal access to resources (Preda, and Voigt, 2015). Differences in social calls and health inequality were there before the existence of NHS, and HNS believed that health inequality can be reduced by eliminating the social inequality and reducing the difference of social class. Thus, this paper explains how different artifacts explain the relationship between social class and health inequality (Goldblatt, 2016).

Impact Of Social Class On Health Inequality

Social class includes economic factors such as housing, access to resources, and living conditions with physical factors. All these factors are linked with the health and wellbeing of the population and cause health inequality based on the different social classes. For example, people living with low income and lack of resources have complicated lifestyles and they are often found suffering from obesity, and other cardiovascular diseases due to unhealthy diet and lifestyle that increase the morbidity and mortality compared to the people who have better living conditions and high social class (Bartley, 2016). Research shows that morbidity and death statistics widely depend on the social class, people with low social class are more vulnerable to wellbeing concerns. Social class is not only concerned with housing and resources; however, it also includes the environment of the workplace and education. Those who belong to the higher class tend to live more and have a better working environment than low social class, hence it shows a relationship between the occupation and health of individuals (Scambler, 2019).

Michael Marmot who originally investigated the impact of SDOH on the health and wellbeing of workers found a strong relationship between the working class and the mortality of people, and the working class is also linked with the lower socioeconomic status (Marmot, 2017). In Whitehall, Study Marmot have revealed that Individual workers with lower social class tend to receive low-grade jobs with low income, while people with high standards received higher grade job as they have resources and opportunities and higher education. The social class and living condition for low-grade workers does not change and they become vulnerable to health issues by living in vulnerable situations, hence, social status, income, and job affect the wellbeing of people. The Whitehall Study of Marmot can be considered as an artifact explaining the social class and health inequality who have received lots of recognition for his significant contribution to SDOH and wellbeing (Lahelma aet al., 2015).

“From Ancient Rome to 20th Century Britain every historical age has experienced health inequalities based on the wealth or social class of the population (BBC History, 2021)." similarly, this problem also exists in the present UK. This pattern can be explained by a pyramid structure, for example, people with low social class and low economic status are at the bottom of the pyramid and are high in number, hence they have prone to health and wellbeing challenges while numbers of people who have high social class are less and there is the top, furthermore, the number reduces as the class of people increase, and they tend to have low risk compared to the people who are at the bottom. “The 19th century has been more unusual than it has left the mark on history. In the early 19th century, life expectancy for middle-class people in London was higher than the working class, the middle class expect to live 44 while the working-class only 22 (BBC History, 2021).”