ECON 317 Group Project – CHOOSE A DETERMINANT Due FEBRUARY 1st by 11:55 PM – ONLY ONE SUBMISSION PER GROUP IS NEEDED

There are three steps to this project:

1. Choose a social determinant of health. In later assignments, your group will design a small-scale intervention that will improve health outcomes related to this determinant of health in present-day Victoria, BC, and perform a cost-effectiveness analysis on it. The social determinants of health are : 1

• Income and social status • Employment and working conditions • Education and literacy • Childhood experiences • Physical environments • Social supports and coping skills • Healthy behaviours • Access to health services • Biology and genetic endowment • Gender • Culture

2. Research the determinant, and the situation in Victoria related to the determinant, using at least two sources. These sources can be articles, videos, podcasts, statistical series, etc. You must cite all the sources you end up using for part 3, in APA format, in a bibliography.

3. Write a BACKGROUND on the topic of your choice, with a MAXIMUM word count of 500 words. You can think of this background as a short news article that informs readers of the basics of the issue at hand. The idea is that before you design a project to help with an issue, you should know the most important facts about the issue.

Your background article should try to answer the ‘W-H’ questions: Who? What? Where? When? Why? How? For example, if you were writing about the opioid addiction , you could explain…

WHO is addicted to opioids, and WHY this happened WHAT opioids they are taking, and WHAT the effect of addiction is on their lives WHERE they are taking the opioids HOW they are obtaining the opioids WHEN the crisis started WHY the crisis continues WHO is currently dealing with the crisis (volunteers, medical professionals, etc.), WHAT are they doing, HOW is it funded, and WHY hasn’t it been enough?

This list is copied from Government of Canada. (2018). Social determinants of health and health inequalities [Web 1 Page]. Retrieved from https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/health-promotion/population-health/what- determines-health.html

DETERMINANT CHOICE ASSIGNMENT TEMPLATE

GROUP: ___G____

TOPIC CHOSEN: Income and social status

BACKGROUND:

Income and social status play an important role in people’s health. All the relationships

between health and income are very complex and hard to study, but there’s no doubt that poor health

is closely linked to low income. People with lower income usually take care of themselves with less

money. For example, they are less going to have a doctor, taking medicine or eating healthy food.

“Wherever you are in terms of income, people much better off than you are going to be healthier

and live longer, and people that are less well off financially are probably, as a group, on average, not

going to live as long and be less healthy” (Laudan Aron, 2015). Oppositely, higher incomes people

usually have more accessibility to healthier resources, such as healthier food choice, better

education, entertainment, and safer housing. In additionally, high-income people usually represent

the status of society, such as lawyer, professor, dentists and engineers. The reason is that people who

have high social status can get more educated in order to promote a healthier lifestyle. “For

example, those one step down from the top (doctors, lawyers, etc.) had heart disease rates four times

higher than those at the top (those at levels comparable to deputy ministers)” (CIC,2013).Usually

the people who have high social status, such as the director of hospital will pass high-risk work to

the subordinates. Thus, they have less stress, and more time enhancing health. In conclusion, high

income and social status can decrease the risk of getting various disasters, or that low income and

status may increase it.

WORD COUNT: ______265___ (≤ 500)

BIBLIOGRAPHY (CITATIONS IN APA FORMAT)

SOURCE 1

Kincaid, E. Residents of One Virginia County Live 18 Years Longer Than People Just 350 Miles

Away — Here’s Why [Web Page]. Business Insider. Retrieved April, 14 2015 from https://

www.businessinsider.com/how-income-affects-health-2015-4

SOURCE 2

What Makes Canadians Healthy or Unhealthy [Web Page]. (n.d.). In CIC. Retrieved January 15,

2013 from https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/health-promotion/population-health/

what-determines-health/what-makes-canadians-healthy-unhealthy.html