Help needed for assignment - Sociology/Health

[jofeb04]

Hiya
I've got an assignment to be in by tuesday, and I don't even know where to start!
The question is:

Assess the various sociological explanations of the inequalities in health in the UK today.

I've tried to start by writing the introduction, but I don't even know where to start!

Please help

poor people less likely to access health services cos of cost of travel
less educated ones don't fully understand diagnosis
men vs women women more likely to access

except that men are less targeted by the health services, they don't get regular check ups for things like smears etc. Men are less liekt than woen to take the kids for check ups etc, so men are more 'distant' from the health service. Testicular cancers etc are often 'missed'

they want you to discuss thinsg like functionlism and marxism and how they woudl explain inequality

That's what I thought it was all about! Didn't even understand the question tbh!

less educated people know less about +ve aspects of diet exercise etc

less access to gyms etc

smoking more prevalent/drug culture

cramped social conditions spread of tb in asian populations

whats the name of the course your doing?

sory to disagree with everyone else....but dont get caught up describing ineqaulities in health, thats not the question

you need to decribe what teh main sociological explainations are and ASSESS them ie point out their strengths and weaknesses.

whats your word limit? Is it a fisrt year college/uni course? whats your course textbook?

I'm doing the Access to Nursing. Thankfully it seems I was thinking along the same path as you lot!

Feel much more confident now

KristinaM,
The word limit is between 1500 and 2000 so I have some leway (sp?) over it. It is a college course, and textbooks (?), we don't have any lol

2000 words isnt a lot.

It doenst particularly matter that its ineqaulities in health as they follow more or less the same patterns as poverty. see if you can find stuff on this. most introductory sociology books shoudl cover it

remember its sociological explanations they want - NOt social ones, which is what most posters are talking about ( sorry)

you will need to talk about the marxist perspective on inequality, which envisages a time that they will disappear, aftre the destruction of capitalism. Functionalist theorists see ineqauilty as permanent, necessary and inevitable, because it has a function to perform in society

when we did similar essay we had to discuss perspectives and reasons

bloomin heck jofe- this is almost identical to my essay- but im already doing the nursing degree and my assignment is only 1000 words long!!!

peachyclair gave me some fab websites the other day- hang on and ill find them

here- very helpful.

social theories stuff

sorry that linked to the wrong thread- hang on again.

this one

click on libks that Pclair gave me.

Thanks tiedmama and everyone else,
Going to have a good look on it over the weekend (fun again )

This might be a bit late for you, and I am sure you already know about this, but have you checked out the Acheson Report and the Black Report? Also, Wanless might bring a few things up.

But the most obvious reasons for inequalities are socio-econimic status, geography and gender.

Good luck withthe essay and your course