Poverty as a Social Determinant of Health in Canada

Assignment title: Scholarly discussion paper
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How Poverty Affects Health
Introduction
In Canada, among the social determinants (SDH) of health include disparities in income distribution, joblessness and job security, housing, early childhood development, poverty among several others. WHO defines SDH as the conditions surrounding an individual, especially the way they are born, raised and live, including the external forces and systems that have impacts on their everyday life. Examples of these external forces include social policies and norms, economic policies and political systems, among others (WHO, 2018). In Canada, the political forces drive the social determinants of health. Kickbusch (2015) argue that health is a political choice, especially when leaders compete for power instead of addressing the issues that affect the population. In support of his arguments, he points out that health services are unevenly distributed, health is one of the key dimensions of citizenship, and human rights and most of the health determinants are dependent on the political actions (Kickbusch, 2015). Public policies are responsible for creating the health inequalities by inequitably distributing the social determinants of health among Canadians. In addressing the current issue, the government and the respective organizations should work together in developing policies that improve the social determinants of health in Canada. Among the social determinants of health in Canada, poverty is the single largest health determinant.
Poverty as a Social Determinant of Health
Poverty is an issue because Canada does not have an official ration of poverty. The manner in which poverty is measured defines poverty and has implications on the development of policies to reduce poverty and its impacts on fitness (Shimmin, 2018). Canada does not define poverty, neither does it approximate the number of low-income families living in poverty. Instead, it broadcasts statistics on the number of people living in low income using a different measurement. Due to canceling of mandatory long form census, it is difficult to compare income trends. Therefore, the voluntary survey is more probable to under-represent Canadians living in low income (Shimmin, 2018).
For many years, Canada has been viewed as a global leader in providing health care to the marginalized people. However, the country has been recently ranked behind other top countries in health and poverty. Poverty has been declared by the World Health Organization to be a major health determinant. Poverty has been associated with reduced life expectancy among the population. For instance, a recent study concludes that 20% of wealthy men can live four years more than 20% of poor men in the neighborhoods of Canada (Canada Without Poverty, 2018).
According to the statistics presented by Canada without Poverty (2018), One in every seven people or approximately 4.9 million people, which is 13.9% of the Canadian population live below the set poverty levels. The top 3 states that record high levels of poverty are Toronto, Vancouver, and Windsor, with 17%, 16.9%, and 16.2%, respectfully (Canada without Poverty, 2018). Accurate data on the poverty levels f...