Sociology 150gm - Final take-home Paper 2

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Sociology 150gm - Final take-home Paper
Health remains a debatable topic especially on the basis of factors like race, class, and gender; indeed these three factors continue to initiate debate world over. It is therefore fair to apportion the blame where it is due rather than pointing the media as the main cause; this will help in diagnosing and healing the right causes (Sternheimer, 114). It is always best to note that good health is in the hands of individuals; but, race, class and gender have an impact in determining the health of an individual. This paper tackles the factors, race, class, and gender and how they are related to overall health and well being, life expectancy and obesity.
Class is a major factor in the access to health; in fact even in the wealthiest nations in the world still have problems in health. Poverty remains a major hindrance in the access of health since the poor do not have the money to pay for their health. According to Berkman, (38) the United States has the world’s most spending budget in health but still ranks low in life expectancy among the industrialized countries. This is attributed by the difference in class where the population is made of few rich people with access to quality health and a huge poor population which cannot access quality health care. These poor Americans have their life expectancy same to the adults in the third world countries.
Studies indicated that the life expectancy of Americans of 45 years is directly proportional to family income i.e. it raises with rise in income (Berkman, 39). This also extends to the issue of gender backgrounds where white and black men from rich families are expected to live seven more years than those in poor families and white and black women from rich families are expected to live four more years than those in poor families. The poor are subjected to hard labor and other risky work that exposes them to health risks this is most for the African American descent that may have been searching the American dream. The jobs they do are not insured and ha...