Historically, health is determined by conditions at our home, workplace, the health of our
neighbors and also communities. Again, our health can also be determined by several social and
economic factors. Social determinants of health can be described as environmental conditions in
which people are brought up in. For example, where people are born, church or place of worship,
schools they attended, neighbors, among other environmental conditions. Social health
determinants include; Housing separation, access to employment, Resources to cater for basic
needs, the security of the general public, among others (Marmot, 2018). Generally, social factors
which connote people living standards also influence the health of the people. Environmental
conditions affect the health of people.
Poverty is one of the major social determinants which contribute to the development of
the disease. Children brought up in low-income family backgrounds have high chances of
contacting deficiency diseases such as kwashiorkor and suffer from malnutrition since they lack
access to a balanced diet (Hinton, 2019). Many reported cases of marasmus and kwashiorkor are
associated with low-income family backgrounds. Other major social determinants contributing to
diseases include lack of access to health care, education, social stigma and discrimination based
on race. People who lack access to health care such immunization can develop polio,
diphtheria, yellow fever, tuberculosis or any other immunized diseases at an early age. For
stance, people who lack education on conditions such as STIs can contact such people since they
don't know factors contributing to the development of such diseases.
Communicable disease chain model is designed to present how a contagious disease
transmits from one person to another. The model shows that the chain of infection can be
terminated once one person is treated. In case there is an outbreak of a contagious disease,
immediate preventive measures should be taken to break the chain of infection. To break
DETERMINANTS OF HEALTH 3
communicable disease chain of infection, a nurse should start by killing pathogens which cause
diseases, terminate the environment where the infectious agent lives, interrupt the chain in portal
exit, method of transmission, portal entry and vulnerable host
Environmental conditions influence the health of the people. In summary, the
surrounding environment where they are born and brought up in determines their health
conditions. People brought up in low-income family backgrounds are likely to suffer from
malnutrition diseases. Again, people working in dusty working places are expected to develop
lung disease and breathing problems.
