The social determinants of health are the living and the working conditions which influence people’s health. Therefore our health is also affected in part by the social and economic opportunities available to us. Discussed below are the identified social factors affecting health in our society. Stressful conditions making people to be anxious and worried damage ones health. Stressful circumstances make it hard to engage in physical activities or even practicing health eating habits since the body energy is focused on dealing with day to day challenges (Brunner & Marmot, 2006). Stress also leads to prolonged biological reactions which strains the physical body. Therefore, continuous stressing circumstances will result to weakening of the resistance to diseases of the body and interferes with the functioning of the hormonal and metabolic systems. According to Brunner & Marmot (2006), the improvement of health may only be achieved if living conditions are improved and therefore, focus must be placed on solving the source of the problems instead of dealing with the underlying symptoms.
Another social factor affecting health is the distribution of income. This is because it is the level of incomes which shapes how people live. Low incomes results to social and material deprivation as the basic needs are a challenge to meet for the low income earners (Raphael, 2010). Food, clothing and shelter are the prerequisites of health and for the people with low incomes it results to social exclusion which later affects one’s health. People living in deprived conditions experience high death rates and the suicide levels are high too. Additionally, studies show that adult-onset diabetes and heart attacks are far more common among low income earners (Jones, 2000).
Education is also an important social determinant of health since people
