By Aude Naud, Marion Soret and Pauline Thebault
Is there a link between the social class and health? To answer this question, we are going to present you two articles on the subject. The first one, ” Les inégalités sociales rendraient malade “, was written by Bruno Humbeek, researcher in family and school psychology at the university of Mons. The second, ” L’inégalité sociale devant les soins de la santé “, was written by Alfred Sauvy, economist, demographer and sociologist.
Studying it through the observation of the Japanese macaques, the team of Snyder-Mackler (2016, cited in Humbeeck, 2017) was able to make the link between the social class and the life expectancy. Indeed, they observed that macaques at the bottom of the social hierarchy had no access to the beneficial environmental elements reserved for the highest level of hierarchy. Therefore, in addition to being more affected by the bad weather, the less important macaques also had limited access to foodstuffs. So, put under stress by the environment and the need to fight to survive, the social behavior of delousing is clearly reduced. Because of the competition set between the animals, social supports become scarce.
All these factors increased drastically macaques’ stress at the bottom of the hierarchical pyramid. The stress, in addition of bad environmental conditions, impacts very negatively the immune system.
The impact of social class on the daily life of the Japanese macaques is transposable with the impact of the amount of income on the daily life of people. A low-income limits the access to a healthy place of life or a quality foodstuff. This need for survival does not encourage to create relational links. Actually, according to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, the physiological and safety questions must be satisfied before being interested in the needs for memberships.
In his article, Sauvy (1983) highlights that people of high social class visit specialists rather than general practitioners (although, in a general way, they go less to the doctor than people of lower social standing).
Better healed, they have fewer prescriptions, fewer hospitable stays and less long stays.
Moreover, based on principle of supply and demand, the specialists are rather in big cities. So, financial and geographical access is facilitated for people of high social class comparatively to those of lower class. That increases the difference between the two classes about the ease of access to medical services.
Furthermore, the author makes the hypothesis that the cultural level between a worker and a doctor is relatively different, so comprehension would not be optimal because the language would not be the same.
These results could explain the link between poverty and low life expectancy. The stress caused by the difficulties of access to the primary needs, added to the lack of social supports, increases the level of disease. Moreover, poverty reduces geographical and financial access to health services.
Bibliography:
Humbeeck, B. (2017). Les inégalités sociales rendraient malade. Cerveau & Psycho, 85, 12.
Sauvy, A. (1983). L’inégalité sociale devant les soins de la santé. Population, 38(6), 1060-1063.
Young student of Master in social psychology, labor and organizations, I am interested in the subjects related to the quality of life at work.
I did all my graduate studies at the University of Nantes.
Following my diploma of psychologist, I envisage to carry out a master in ergonomics in alternation.