Social Determinants of Health in the African British Community: A Study on Hypertension and Diabetes

Background

It is important to note that in United Kingdom, there exists a wide range of diversity and equity issues in the range of health and social care being delivered to the individuals from the urban and the community settings. In this study – the various aspects of the health and the well-being and the health wellness, the range of illnesses, cultural and the social factors affecting the social determinants of health with respect to the specific community, population or a locality has been discussed (Mukhtar et al. 2018).

The definitions of health and wellbeing as well as of the analysis of health and wellness has been done and the different complex psychosocial and the sociocultural factors affecting the delivery of the care – has been explored as well. It is critical to note the different models of health service and social service delivery models has been described and it is important also to note that the models are biopsychosoical model of health delivery and the health belief model has been discussed and the correlations has been drawn as well (Veenstra 2019).

As the major factors such as education, employability, accessibility to proper health care and accessibility to quality health services, knowledge and awareness about the management of diseases and the prevention of the diseases, the increased the sociocultural implications of drinking and smoking in the community living areas, quality of life, hygiene, environment, safety, psychological safety, socioeconomic status and the inherent factors are involved in the development of the diseases (Grima et al. 2018). The topic focusses on community health in relevance to hypertension and diabetes mellitus among the African British community living people.

It is critical to note that the social determinants of health such as low socioeconomic status, lack of employability and job, lack of knowledge and education, lack of disease awareness, health illiteracy, poor quality of life and living standards, lack of proper food supply and lack of nutrition affect the health of the African British community in a negative manner and it is highly important to note that the prevalence of hypertension and diabetes mellitus is very high in this African British community (Vaz et al. 2018). Increased rates of psychosocial addictions with alcohol and other drugs also affects the level of deterioration with the hypertension and with diabetes.

According to a report, 52.7 years was the mean age that was most prone to the development of the dual complication of hypertension and diabetes mellitus (Maweni et al. 2018). Diabetes mellitus and hypertension are chronic conditions are clinically comorbid and there is a high prevalence of the same population is attributed to lack of proper policy making, lack of social and health policy implement and lack of National

Interventions

Health Service to address the community health due to the challenges posed by the social determinants of health (Mezue et al. 2016). According to world health organisation definition of health, it can be defined as “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.” According to the guidelines laid by World Health Organization and the way it collaborates with the National Health Service, it is critical to deliver a community centered, culturally competent care, culturally aware care to the community living African British community as their culture and society is politically and socially discriminated by the dominant groups in United Kingdom (Nqebelele et al. 2019).

Collaboration with the community leaders, the local social activists and the non-governmental organizations working for the health and the social interests of this African British community in prevention and management of diabetes and hypertension – should be important strategy of the government level public health officers and the health care staffs who should work with an interdisciplinary approach towards the health promotion of the community. Disclosure and the right enactment of the corporate social responsibility is again important in the development and prevention of the disease in along with educational and social plus economic empowerment of the community living people in United Kingdom.

It is critical that the health promotion in the community is done and delivered by the proper health and social care delivery models such as Biopsychosoical model of health and Health Belief model. The biopsychosoical model of health involves providing a physical and psychological care in order to treat the physical and mental conditions of the community living people and the model encourages strong inter-professional collaboration skills in order to deliver a multidisciplinary service to the community living people.

The holistic traditional healers should be included in the community health and social care process, for a holistic service. Under this health care model, the social aspects of the community empowerment is considered as an important and cardinal aspect of community development and health promotion. The model address the community health problems by adjusting the physical health, metabolic disorders, lifestyle and stress and immune response, comorbidity, stress response, trauma, grief, social interpersonal relationships, socio economic status, work, peer group, culture and family circumstances, interpersonal skills, temperament, perceptions, social skills and problem solving and among all the above aspects being controlled by the model of health – the mental health of the subject in pertinence to stress and anxiety is also controlled. Healthy equity and diversity is promoted in a cultural competent manner. This model is very helpful in the management of chronic lifestyle conditions such as diabetes mellitus and hypertension.

Conclusion

According to the Health Belief model, the demographic variables in addition to the psychological characteristics is taken into consideration and from there, the health care model takes in care – the factors such as perceived severity, susceptibility, the expected benefits and the anticipated barriers in order to encourage the community members through extrinsic motivation and intrinsic motivation to improve the self-care skills in the management of diseases such as diabetes and hypertension. From the perceptual and the needs assessment, the cues are formulated based on which the actions are delivered to the community in United Kingdom. The social equity in relation to the diverse range of services plus cultural health service can be delivered.

The similarities are that models work on collaboration and on a holistic approach and the differences are that the health belief model does not have a prominent physical aspect of care. The implications are lack of collaboration skills and lack of cultural competence.

Conclusion

It can be concluded saying that these social determinants of health are the major factors that are described as social and cultural implication in relation to delivery of a health promoting program to community or in relation to a health service delivery at a health care organisation or institution. In this case, both biopsychosoical model of health in addition to health belief model has to be delivered to address the hypertension and diabetes mellitus in the Black British community.

References

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Maweni, R.M., Sunderland, N., Rahim, Z., Odih, E., Kallampallil, J., Saunders, T. and Akunuri, S., 2018. Clinical characteristics of Black patients with hypertensive urgency. Irish Journal of Medical Science (1971-), 187(4), pp.1089-1096.

Mezue, K., Isiguzo, G., Madu, C., Nwuruku, G., Rangaswami, J., Baugh, D. and Madu, E., 2016. Nocturnal non-dipping blood pressure profile in black normotensives is associated with cardiac target organ damage. Ethnicity & disease, 26(3), p.279.

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Nqebelele, N.U., Dickens, C., Dix-Peek, T., Duarte, R. and Naicker, S., 2019. Urinary uromodulin levels and UMOD variants in black South Africans with hypertension-attributed chronic kidney disease. International journal of nephrology, 2019.

Vaz, N.P., De Oliveira, D.R., Abouelella, G.A. and Khater, H.F., 2018. The black seed, Nigella sativa (Ranunculaceae), for prevention and treatment of hypertension. Vol. 48 Hypertension of the Series “Recent Progress in Medicinal Plants”.

Veenstra, G., 2019. Black, White, Black and White: mixed race and health in Canada. Ethnicity & health, 24(2), pp.113-124.