{"id":27903,"date":"2022-02-15T13:05:06","date_gmt":"2022-02-15T13:05:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.cancerresearchuk.org\/?p=24052"},"modified":"2024-11-03T15:13:43","modified_gmt":"2024-11-03T15:13:43","slug":"health-inequalities-we-have-a-moral-duty-to-reduce-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ogkologos.com\/en\/health-inequalities-we-have-a-moral-duty-to-reduce-them\/","title":{"rendered":"Health inequalities: \u201cWe have a moral duty to reduce them\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Illustration<\/div>\n

Welcome to the first post in our Inequalities Series, a series of articles that discusses health inequalities and how they relate to cancer, from prevention and early diagnosis to treatment and research.<\/em><\/p>\n

In this first article, we talk to Professor Sir Michael Marmot, who has stood at the forefront of research into health inequality for decades, to discuss what health inequality actually is, and what we can do to reduce it.<\/em><\/p>\n

Why do health inequalities exist?<\/h2>\n

Health inequalities \u2013 the fact that some people in society are more likely to suffer worse health than others \u2013 have been brought to the fore during a pandemic that has seen a disproportionate impact on more deprived groups, people from ethnic minority backgrounds, and women.<\/p>\n

But health inequalities existed before the pandemic struck, affecting all aspects of our health, including our risk of getting and surviving conditions like cancer. A report we produced in 2020 found that over 30,000 extra cases of cancer in the UK<\/a> each year can be attributed to socio and financial deprivation, and survival is worse for the most deprived groups.<\/p>\n

And people\u2019s experience of the healthcare system, and ultimately how likely they are to be successfully diagnosed and treated, varies massively, something we\u2019ll be covering in much more detail in future articles.<\/p>\n

So, what\u2019s behind these differences?<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen people think about health, they usually think about healthcare. I\u2019ve lost track of the number of times I\u2019ve been asked to talk about inequalities in healthcare,\u201d says Marmot. \u201cAnd I have to point out that most of the inequalities in health are not the result of inequalities in access to quality healthcare. Most of them are present before people get sick. It\u2019s the social determinants of health that are most important.\u201d<\/p>\n

Marmot describes the social determinants of health as the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work, and age, and inequalities in power, money, and resources that drive the inequalities in the conditions of daily life.<\/p>\n

These factors mean that not everyone has the same pressures and opportunities in life, making it harder for some people to live healthily or increasing barriers to seeking healthcare. For example, people living in more deprived areas are 2.5 times more likely to smoke<\/a> than those in the least deprived, and find it harder to quit.<\/p>\n

The combination of these factors leads to a \u2018health gap\u2019 between the most and least deprived in society, with the most deprived more likely to suffer from worse health and have a lower life expectancy.<\/p>\n

But, Marmot says, simply seeing it as a gap isn\u2019t the full story.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Health Gap was the title I gave to my book on health inequalities, which is accurate, but doesn\u2019t cover the full picture,\u201d says Marmot. \u201cIt\u2019s accurate in the sense that, if you look in London, you have something like an 18-year gap in life expectancy between the poorest part of London and the richest. But the real issue exists as a gradient.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, those differences in money, power and resources between different groups mean that the lower social and financial position someone finds themselves in, the more likely they are to suffer from worse health, with outcomes getting worse the further they are from the top.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, these inequalities are profoundly unfair. But they are also avoidable.<\/p>\n

The cost of inaction<\/h2>\n

Marmot has been doing research into health inequalities and the gradient in health across society for decades, and his work has meant we can see how this has changed over time.<\/p>\n

In 2010, Marmot was invited by the Government to write a report on the social determinants of health for England, which gave rise to The Marmot Review<\/a>. In this, Marmot identified 6 key areas to focus on to reduce health inequalities:<\/p>\n