Explain the Patterns and Trends in Health and Illness Among Different Social Groupings

Ethnicity

There is evidence that there is a higher incidence of rickets in children form Asian families due to a deficiency in vitamin D in their diet.

Most ethnic minority groups have a shorter life expectancy and have higher infant mortality rates. This could be linked to the social economic situations faced by any migrant workers.

Language and cultural barriers can limit the use of health services. For example Asian women are not going to feel comfortable going to see male doctors. Translation is another language complication. This is because it is not easy to capture the same meaning when translating between two completely different languages.

Racism is and can become very stressful and can result in conflict between people and the person who is being victimised, have problems to deal with such as emotional stress. Workers in health centres understand religious and cultural beliefs but there is a chance that some may not meet the needs of the patient.

In 2001 census revealed that 342,032 people aged 65+ have over 50 hours unpaid heath care every week. 60% of people aged 65-74 and 64% of people over 75 seem to have a long-standing illness. 24% of people over the age of 75 attended hospital for different reasons

There are regional variations in patterns if health and illness. Mortality rates and mobility rates are different in other areas of the country in the UK. For example within England, lung cancer is above average in North West, Northern, and Yorkshire Regions and below average in the South Western, Southern and Eastern Regions. This shows that mortality rates and mobility rates are higher in different areas in the country.