The notion of health care cannot exist in isolation from a variety of external influencers that surround human beings in terms of their day-to-day existence. Thus, to comprehend the extent to which social paradigm impacts human health, the US Department of Health and Human Services outlined five major social determinants of health (SDOH). They include economic stability, education access and its quality, health care access and quality, neighborhood and environment, and social and community background (Healthy People 2030, n.d.). These factors, although seemingly having no direct correlation to the issue of disease development, are crucial in terms of people’s access to quality lifestyle and care.
A prime example of such importance may be noted in the context of the current COVID-19 pandemic outbreak. People who are less likely to have access to quality nutrition and public health care are at higher risk of infection and suffering from disease complications. The causal link in such a scenario could be traced as follows: people with poor socio-economic stability have limited access to proper nutrition, increasing their risk of obtaining a chronic condition such as heart disease, diabetes, or obesity – these people are more liable to struggle with acute forms of COVID-19 virus and be hospitalized (Finer et al., 2020). For this reason, it may be rightfully concluded that SDOH has a serious impact on one’s health condition and physical and mental well-being.
When speaking of the communicable disease chain, it should be mentioned that nurses play a vital role in terms of securing proper preventive measures in order not to escalate the scopes of disease dissemination. The overall communicable chain disease is aimed at representing the ways in which infection travels from one host to another. It includes such components as disease, human reservoir, a portal of exit, transmission, a portal of entry, and the establishment of a new host (The Open University, n.d.). The preventive measures for each stage are divided into the ones that depend on individuals and the ones that depend on health care facilities. Thus, in order to break the link within the communicable disease chain, nurses are to establish a working treatment pattern, along with educating people on the matter of individual protection from the infectious disease.
References
Finer, N., Garnett, S. P., & Bruun, J. M. (2020). COVID‐19 and obesity.Clinical Obesity, 10(3). Web.
Healthy People 2030. (n.d.). Social determinants of health.US Department of Health and Human. Services. Web.
The Open University. (n.d.). Health education, advocacy and community mobilisation module: 3. Factors affecting human health. Web.