Social Determinants of Health: Impact on Health Wellness - Essay Sample

Introduction

Social determinants of health (SDOH) are environmental conditions that influence how individuals live, learn, play, worship, and thus affects a wide range of health, functionalities, outcomes, and health-related risks (Golden et al., 2015). These conditions include such environmental settings as learning institutions, worship places, workplaces, and surrounding neighborhoods. Notably, the availability of resources boosts the quality of life and, thus, overall health wellness of a family. Examples of these resources are suitable housing, good education, public health and safety, healthy foods, and free toxin-environment. For instance, Mr. Johnson's children go to school and receive a good education, but inadequacy of exercise, especially at home and video game addiction, may be responsible for deteriorated health conditions among the children. Therefore, the paper aims to analyze and examine multiple action plans that can be incorporated into Mr. Johnson's family to promote overall health wellness.

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Besides, the affordability of good housing and facilities may cause a lack of sleep and stress to Mrs. Johnson. Furthermore, Mr. Johnson has recently experience occupational stress. Therefore, a Family health assessment is essential in the evaluation of significant areas of improvement to promote overall health wellness (Marmot, 2018). Notably, in most circumstances, family members undergo the process of evaluation using such methods as functional health patterns, which is significant in providing multiple examinable variables. Essentially, social determinants of health (SDOH) may also involve complicated situations that have the capability of influencing a family's health status, including socio-political, educational, and accessibility of quality care services (Marmot, 2018).

Notably, Johnson's family is plagued by such SDOH, including social, economic, and personal family factors. As earlier noted, the family has adequate resources to sustain the family; this implies that they do not have extra finance to cater for improved quality care. Therefore, financial constraints may hinder the family from accessing quality care from professional healthcare providers. Both couples have to seek alternative sources of income to support the additional financial needs of the family. For instance, insufficient financial resources have prevented Mr. Johnson from seeking better medical attention from his recently acquired diabetes.

Moreover, financial problems have also limited the number of checkups that Mr. Johnson is supposed to undertake despite having private doctor. Consequently, it is worth noting that Mr. Johnson also have other weight health-related concerns, but he does not consider them as serious health issues. However, according to medical practitioners, ' overweight is a serious health concern which can translate to other conditions including heart diseases, diabetes, high blood pressure, and other kidney diseases (Golden et al., 2015). This ignorance is caused by a lack of financial resources since there is no other alternative.

Besides, the family have inadequate social support that affects various health decision and thus have an impact on the family's health. Though Mr. Johnson's family feeds on a balanced diet including protein, carbohydrate, vitamins, among other nutrients', the family goes on nature walks occasionally and may buy food from local restaurants that my lack these nutrients. Notably, consuming restraint food has been largely associated with health concerns, including unhealthy food choices, particularly from children. Most often, the children opt for crunchy foods, snacks, and foods having too much sugars, thus being vulnerable to obesity and other heart diseases.

The consequence of SDOH on the various family is that it has hindered access to medical care, including checkups. Many families, including Mr. Johnson's family, are limited to the number of medical checkups. Regretfully, this has got negative health consequences to Mrs. Johnson who needs frequent medical checkups and monitoring

Screening is mostly mitigated through the evaluation of five significant social needs associated with health. For example, developing a suitable questionnaire on screening and identification of social needs, including food, safety, housing, and transportation. It is worth noting that screening methods are mostly procedure based. Therefore, SDOH Patient Action Plan, Long-form screening tools, and Short-form are implemented for screening practices and procedures (Riebe et al., 2015). A child between the of age 10 and 13 can be examined in reference to educational resources and personal safety, and thus, it would be most appropriate for Johnson's three children. On the other hand, Mr. and Mrs. Johnson can be evaluated based on such grounds, including occupation, housing, and overall support to the family.

Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Model

Bronfenbrenner's ecological model takes into consideration the dynamics of the environment, interrelations, and personal factors and thus suitable for Johnson's family. The model considers both the biological and psychological makeup of children based on genetic factors and a child's developmental history (Riebe et al., 2015). Moreover, the model evaluates the environment that a family interacts with, including mesosystem, microsystem, and ecosystem, as illustrated below in Figure 1. Furthermore, the model is appropriate and applicable to the strategic alignment of public health policies across multiple families.

Figure 1: Bronfenbrenner's ecological model

Hence the model has been found to be suitable for Mr. Johnson's family since it would boost psychological and social development on not only the children but also the parents through identified patterns. For instance, in the case of the children, the microsystem comprises the learning environment, peers, and friends while for the parents, that may be the workplace environment and neighbors.

Family-Centered Health Promotion and Health Communication Strategies

Promotion of Mr. Johnson's family health may revolve around:

Increased outdoor activities for their three children, which may reduce video game addiction. Moreover, it would improve the physical activities of the children, leading to improved overall health.

Reduction in stress through increased interaction with community and family: It may be mentioned that in case the prime cause of stress is reduced, the family, especially the adults may benefit from the stress at work or household chores.

Health communication strategies include:

• Comprehension of conventional concepts related to the culture and settings prevalent for the family
• Consideration of cultural competence and health literacy among the target population
• Organizing field and educational trips for the children, while the adults may be addressed through billboards, modern tools and more

References

Golden, S. D., McLeroy, K. R., Green, L. W., Earp, J. A. L., & Lieberman, L. D. (2015). Upending the social-ecological model to guide health promotion efforts toward policy and environmental change.

Marmot, M. (2018). Social Determinants, Capabilities, and Health Inequalities: A Response to Bhugra, Greco, Fennell, and Venkatapuram.

Riebe, D., Franklin, B. A., Thompson, P. D., Garber, C. E., Whitfield, G. P., Magal, M., & Pescatello, L. S. (2015). Updating ACSM's recommendations for exercise preparticipation health screening.