Lochee: Determinants Of Health

Many factors can affect an individuals health and these may or may not be under conscious control. Individuals can chose to lead a healthy lifestyle or unhealthy lifestyle but they cannot control there genetic make up, culture and geographic environments. Florence Nightingale,a revolutionary nurse in the 19th Century, suggested that there was a correlation between an individuals health and the environment they live in. (Weebly 2012). In this essay the neighbourhood of Lochee will be discussed and the determinants of health in this area.

Description of the Neighbourhood

Lochee is an area in the West of Dundee, Scotland. The name ‘Lochee’ means the ‘eye of the loch’ because of the location of the town situated on the banks of Loch Balgay. The
31% of children are found to being living in poverty (BBC 2012). There are three main reasons for poverty within a community, the first one being material goods. Without the money needed individuals are not able to buy healthy food for their families and have little or no money to access services such as the dentist leading to poor dental hygiene. Parents that are in working class may be able to afford to send their children to private schools to get the grades they need to get a job to provide for themselves. If the child has poor health this could lead to illness and disease which then can effect their education, chances of getting a job and earning potentials. This is called reverse causation where poor health as a child can have a knock on effect to your future and in turn can influence your health choices in later life. The psychological effects of poverty can be brought on by the feeling of being of a lower status than people of working class or upper class. This can bring about distress and mental health illnesses such as anxiety, depression and panic attacks. An individual can chose to live a health lifestyle or not depending on their circumstances. Poverty can also affect a person behaviour and this can also damage their health. Healthier food is more expensive to buy and when an individual doesn’t have money they are going to resort to buying unhealthy, pre-packaged processes foods which will have a detrimental effects on their health by increasing your chances of becoming obese. Joining a gym can also be costly meaning your chances of morbidity are higher and for children without the money to send your children for after school activities such as sports this increases their chances of becoming overweight. When you become stressed and you feel there is no way out of your situation people tend to turn to drink, smoking and drugs as a form of relaxation. This is called self-medication and