1. Sociocultural Factors: Sociocultural factors can be indicated by the following:
1.1. Family The family has a huge influence on decisions and attitudes towards health and influence your behaviour choice relating to protective and risk behaviours. If your family encourages exercise and provides nutritious meals, the more likely you will develop the habits of exercising and eating nutritionally valued food compared to a family with a socially-economically disadvantaged family who cannot afford quality foods and does not encourage exercise the more likely you are to not value or maintain good health. The structure of a family can also have a high impact on other factors like income. For example, two-parent families generally have a higher health status due to two incomes whereas sole parents generally have poorer health due to only one source of income and the breakdown of a family can also lead to mental health issues.
1.2. Peers Peers can have an influence for you to adapt their behaviour and can be a positive outcome if the group engages in protective risks or negative if they engage in behaviours that increase risk. For example, your friend group participates in school sports teams benefitting social time with others and level of exercise whereas a friend group who wags classes and participates in smoking and high alcohol consumption contributes to whether you adapt these risk behaviours leading to poorer health if adapted.
1.3. Media Influences our socialisation, values, opinions, development and knowledge, shaping health. Both positive and negative influences on e.g. sexual behaviour, body image, eating, exercise, raising awareness etc, which can be manipulated to promote certain aspects by how the concept is marketed to an audience. For example, the advertisement of fat loss supplements with photoshopped or edited images of unrealistic human features promotes that product should produce this outcome and when not achieved can affect levels of self-esteem leading to mental health struggles. Whereas raising awareness for skin cancer foundation through newspapers and billboard advertisements can influence the audience to take preventive risks like having skin checks regularly promotes health.
1.4. Religion Social benefits including support, sense of purpose and moral codes and can promote protective behaviours such as remaining sober, no sex before marriage. Alienation and judgement may lead to negative impact on identity and link to mental health problems also the limitation of social interactions
1.5. Culture - Refers to accepted ways of behaving within a particular group in society. Ethnicity is linked to socioeconomic status, e.g. language barriers, health beliefs, and lower access to services. If an individual has a sense of belonging in a culture it can have a positive impact on their mental and spiritual well being. Someone migrating from another country to Australia can put a barrier on their health due to lack of access to health services because of language barriers and health beliefs.
2. Socioeconomic Factors: The following factors relate to one another and influence each other
2.1. Education Your level of education affects things like your knowledge and understanding of good health choices and opportunities for employment. The higher level of education or specific area of study knowledge can lead to more opportunities for employment leading to a wealthy lifestyle compared to an individual that had a lack of access to education or unable to afford a high level may struggle to obtain employment with sustainable income
2.2. Employment Employment is your job, what you do for a living and employment status has a huge impact on your health. Work impacts things like your level of activity ( if you have an active job like PDHPE teaching or Personal Trainer or a 9-5 desk job sitting down.) The environment your job requires you to be in can expose you to risk factors like long exposures to sun and other radiations or chemicals. Or can impact the level of community or support network you have around you.
2.3. Income Having a higher income usually gives you an advantage to having good health and providing you with better choices allowing more opportunities like more access to health services that aren't covered by Medicare e.g. seeing specialists for injuries and mental health, being able to afford quality foods and afford personal training. Being socioeconomically disadvantaged puts you at risk of poorer. This can prevent people from securing or maintaining employment, which ultimately affects income. Health problems can also impair a persons ability to continue or succeed in education.
3. Individual Factors: Individual factors of health can be indicated by the following
3.1. Knowledge and skills an individual needs to have a good understanding of health knowledge in order to better their health. The better a person health literacy the more likely they will be able to interpret and understand health information. Depending on an individuals level of skills, can affect their overall health. Having skills related to health including; knowing whom to trust for information and how to find it, decision making, communication, problem-solving, and movement skills. For example, attending school and learning the information needed to make informed decisions and producing protective risks when it comes to drugs, sexual relations and other risk factors and knowing where to get reliable information or help for these risk factors.
3.2. Attitudes An individuals attitude has a significant impact on their health and can either have a negative or positive outcome depending on whether the individual values health and has attributes of resilience, perseverance, self-belief and determination resulting in a positive effect on their health or the individual disregards these values and attributes resulting in a negative impact on their health. These attitudes can come from influences like family for example if your family eats take out foods on a regular basis weekly you are more likely to think this is normal
3.3. Genetics Genetics refers to the genes you inherit from your parents and determine things like your hair and eye colour and how tall you are. As an individual, you are already predisposed to genetic factors such as diseases and health issues inherited from a family making it a non-modifiable factor. If your mother's side of the family has many members that have had breast cancer you are at higher risk of developing breast cancer. Although this is unmodifiable choosing to participate in positive lifestyle behaviours can reduce the risk.
4. Environmental Factors: The following environmental factors contribute to determining individuals health.
4.1. Geographical location Depending on where the individual is living can mean they are exposed to different environments, having an impact on their health. If an individual's geographical location is in the city they have more exposure to air pollution leading to respiratory diseases but more access to services and education whereas someone living in a rural area might have less access to medical services and specialists, education or fresh water in their local area. Injuries in the workplace or traffic systems are also identified as environmental determinants.
4.2. Access to technology technology Access to technology refers to access to health care technology, for example, kidney dialysis machines. Also refers to access to technology for knowledge, such as being able to access the internet. Access to technology is influenced by their access to health services and socioeconomic status. Example, individual living in the city has better service and more access to hospitals and specialists with specific medical technology leading to positive health benefits of technology compared to an individual living in a rural area with poor service and limited to no access to technology disadvantages the individual as they cannot get medical technology support easily if needed.
4.3. Access to services The more access to health services an individual has (someone who lives in the city), the more likely they will have better health outcomes than someone who has to travel long distances (people living in rural areas) for health professionals or is socioeconomically disadvantaged (SED). The lack of access due to SED results in poorer health and suffering from chronic diseases leading to time off work.
