In this essaywill be discussing on the major concerns on health, how certain factors including;gender, age and socioeconomic status effects health. How men and women areaffected mentally, physically and socially. There are so many facts andstatistics showing connections between lifestyle and health. Also looking atdifferent areas in education, wealth, income and poverty which class areconsidered to have higher and lower risks in their health. In UK and other countriesmany people are living in poor areas ant their health have been effected badlyas they cannot afford to buy resources, food and live in healthier way.(cite) In this essay will be exploring andcritiquing on the poor, rich, differences in men and women to overcome theinequality. This is one of the reason behind high mortality rates In UK andother countries many people are living in poor areas ant their health have beeneffected badly as they cannot afford to buy resources, food and live inhealthier way.

(Cite) One majorpoint concerning this topic is socioeconomic status; it is the class ofindividual group and it has divided into three groups; high, middle and lowaccording to their wealth, occupation, education and power (). Socioeconomic status effects healthin lots of different ways such as poor housing, less opportunities to the moredeprived population, uneducated people and fewer resources such as healthservices and physical environments. All of these factors are linked to poorhealth and inequality. (Cite) Middle andlow status are in greater risk with their health problems, age faster and muchmore likely to die younger than the higher. This is because there are theworking class, which means their occupation is either working in factories, ascleaners, cashiers with poor environments, standing for long hours. The statisticsshow an unskilled manual male worker life expectancy decrease 10years than theprofessional male worker and this is same with female but female lifeexpectancy is higher than male whether they are high or low class (ONS 2004:6).Compare to the higher class they are in professional jobs such as doctors,lawyers, managers and schoolteachers with better pay and good workingconditions. Most low class people are unemployed, as they do not have enoughknowledge due to poor education and resources available.

Statists shows 10% of women in theUK are judges, 5% are MPs and 8% are in top management positions. (Cite) Socioeconomichas a big impact on the low and middle as they have very limited access tohealth services because they do not have enough money to afford medicines,healthier food and exercise to maintain their physical body and mental state oftheir health. Due to this, many health and bad behaviours problems raised suchas mental health, stress, underweight, increased mortality rates, drugs andalcohol intake. ”Marmot (2005) provides a ratio about one-third of our healthbeing due to bad behaviours such as smoking and drinking and remainingtwo-thirds are influenced by social processes.” People under persistent stress, suchas bringing up children alone and in poverty, are likely to carry out healthnegative behaviors. Research on women and smoking, showed low-income singleparents were the most likely to smoke and that’s used as a coping tactic forstress and social exclusion. ”Marmot (2005) cites the work of Hilary Graham onwhy lone mothers smoked and spent money on smoking, is because spending onsmoking was only their budget on themselves, and rest of the money goeselsewhere and smoking is one luxury they could afford to cope with stress andmade their life bearable.” (Cite) Genderis another factor affecting health; gender refersto the social, biological, characteristics with femininity or masculinity inparticular society (Janes 2002).

Men and women gender matters and affects their experienceof the social world in various ways. In addition, men and women have differenthealth problems due to different type of physical body, work and engagement innegative and positive health behaviours. Differences in men and women aregender-based variations in perceptions of illness. GPsand NHS are less used by the men to seek medical advice until they have verypoor health condition; this is where masculinity plays role. Hegemonicmasculinity requires men to show they are brave and powerful.

”Connell (2005), point is that you do not have to be amale to obey characteristics of hegemonic masculinity and gender is fixed byour biological self, also socially created roles.” Men who cannot cope with anillness that is not in a bad state taken as failing the requirements ofhegemonic masculinity. In this research, it says men employed in job such asfirefighting it is easy for men to talk about their health as their jobstrongly accorded with masculine identity than men working in office-based jobsbecause firefighting job is dangerous and risky work that characterises instereotypes of being a man (O’Brien et al. 2005). This shows that masculinityact as a barrier for men to seek for help when they need and preventing themfrom engaging in healthier and positive behaviours.

In UK, pay gap betweenmen and women are roughly the same amount but in 1975 but men started to earnout women. ”By the age of 49 men earn 45% more than women (ONS 2014).” Thedifference in pay would affect women more with life experience, power andinequalities in opportunities. Most of the women are likely to work part timeand primarily responsible for caring and household work and men works in rolesrequiring physical labour and at workplaces in more powerful posts. Men areexposed to hazards as they work in risky places with machines and smoke pollutionsthat affects their health and cause many problems such as heart disease,breathing problems, strokes, cardiovascular disorders and other illness such asmental problems and stress.