Health is one’s primary asset that allows humans to perform to the extent they maintain themselves sound. It is difficult to stay healthy all the time, yet the preventive measures help avoid severe conditions. Whereas some individuals are extremely mindful of their state, others tend to neglect even the severe disorder (National Academies of Sciences, 2018). There are many different factors that can influence people to choose or not health services. Personal characteristics, like gender, age, and individual access to insurance coverage, can play a role in influencing people to use health services, along with environmental factors like climate and location, and social factors such as family, community, and workplace also can be influential to using or not using the health services.
Many personal factors, such as an individual’s gender, age, and ability to access medical coverage, can influence the decision to use or not to use health services. Primarily, gender is the central aspect affecting the choice of medical services. Typically, females are more aware of their condition and try to resort to the medical organization upon discovering the symptoms. In the meantime, men are prone to fighting the signs on their own at home and only in case of emergency call the doctor. The other characteristic is age – younger individuals rely on their body’s resistance to diseases and are more likely to combat the illness on their own (Abera Abaerei et al., 2017). Meanwhile, the older generation would visit a therapist to find out the condition’s causes and proper treatment. Moreover, healthcare insurance plays an indispensable role in medical services acquisition. There is inequality in terms of coverage since a significant part of the population in the U.S. remains uninsured, meaning they cannot obtain treatment and medications. It lowers the level of national health, yet the government is seeking options to expand eligibility criteria.
Some environmental factors, such as climate and location, where the person lives, can influence them to use health services or not. As a rule, individuals living in remote areas are more likely to develop their own means of combatting the disease rather than those living in urban cities. The latter would immediately call an ambulance that would arrive in less than an hour and take a person to the hospital. The indigenous communities regularly have less access to medical treatment since their settlements are far from city conglomerates (Abera Abaerei et al., 2017). These communities attempt to develop their own conventional treatment methods; however, they could be more useful when it comes to treating severe disorders demanding intervention. In addition, climatic factors affect the acquisition of health care services. For instance, those residing in temperate climatic regions like the north U.S. or south of Canada tend to experience a row of climate change-related illnesses which makes them visit hospitals more often. People living in cold areas are prone to having better immunity, while the southerners are more likely to catch infectious diseases.
Various social factors, for example, family, community, and workplace, influence people to use health services or not. Family defines one’s well-being from the moment of birth. It signifies that attitudes to health are a matter of upbringing as well – if parents and relatives regularly do health checkups, a child would do the same once fully grown (Bastani et al., 2021). On the contrary, if a kid observes their parents struggling with health issues and hoping they will heal on their own, they will be negligent to their health as well. There are cases when the disease might be transferred through generations which makes an individual do medical tests. It is beneficial in terms of preventing oneself from developing the disorder (Jiang et al., 2018). Moreover, there is the same analogy with the community: if one lives surrounded by healthy or unhealthy people, they adjust to the in-group accepted norm.
Finally, the workplace defines the ability of a human to care for their well-being. There are cases when a person overworks and experiences burnout – such a strain on one’s health leads to different somatic symptoms. However, some employers do not provide sick leaves or health coverage plans (Bastani et al., 2021). It leads to unexpected consequences when a person is left with no job, money, and with poor health (National Academies of Sciences, 2018). Contrastively, some employers encourage staff to do medical checkups and sponsor this critical activity.
In conclusion, healthcare services accessibility remains a cornerstone of debates for some layers of the population remains unattainable for a number of factors. Age and gender define what population groups are more or less likely to obtain medical help. At the same time, access to insurance allows receiving the most accessible treatment per the plan. Climate affects the development of different diseases, while location lets address why some people do not get help in time. Ultimately, family, community, and workplace are the institutions that either surround people with health promotion or negligence. All factors are interdependent and influence individuals’ choice of healthcare services.
References
Abera Abaerei, A., Ncayiyana, J., & Levin, J. (2017). Health-care utilization and associated factors in Gauteng province, South Africa. Global health action, 10(1), 1305765. Web.
Bastani, P., Mohammadpour, M., Samadbeik, M., Bastani, M., Rossi-Fedele, G., & Balasubramanian, M. (2021). Factors influencing access and utilization of health services among older people during the COVID – 19 pandemic: A scoping review. Archives of Public Health = Archives Belges de Sante Publique, 79(1), 190. Web.
Jiang, M., Yang, G., Fang, L., Wan, J., Yang, Y., & Wang, Y. (2018). Factors associated with healthcare utilization among community-dwelling elderly in Shanghai, China. PloS One, 13(12), e0207646. Web.
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. (2018). Health-care utilization as a proxy in disability determination. National Academies Press (US).