Housing, income, education and other social factors affect health more than genetics or quality of the healthcare system. The living conditions of a person as well as disadvantage and discrimination determine more than 50 percent of how many years the person survives. In its current study published on Wednesday, this is stated by the World Health Organization (WHO), informs TASR on the basis of DPA report.
The WHO study focuses on “Social Health Determinants” that WHO defines as “the conditions in which people are born, grow up, live, work and grow olderas well as their approach to power, money and resource. ‘ “Social injustice kills in a massive extent”according to the WHO still pays.
WHO writes that the more disadvantaged the region in which people live, the lower their income, and the shorter they are educated, the worse their health, and the less years of their health survival they can expect. The WHO also considers important factors to be income, racism and discrimination, loneliness, access to computers, conflicts and displacement and social security benefits.
People living in countries with the highest life expectancy live on average 33 years more than people in countries with the lowest life expectancy, the WHO report. The mortality rate of children under five is 13 times higher in low-income countries than in rich countries. The differences between rich and poor people have also existed within individual countries, and many cases have increased in recent years rather than diminished.
The solutions are apparent according to WHO – Economic inequalities must be removed, each must have adequate housing, public transport, health care and social assistanceconflicts must be resolved and discrimination must be fought.
Such investments are also worthwhile, because healthier people are more productive and require less medical care. On the contrary – not to do nothing is extremely expensive. However, many poor countries do not have money for higher investments because they are indebted. According to WHO data, 3.3 billion people lived in countries last year that spent more money to repay interest than on health and education.
