Browsing by Author "Adomako Adjei, Bernard"

Background: Health inequalities have been a major concern worldwide, as they often reflect underlying social and economic issues. These challenges have been attributed to various factors, including socioeconomic status, lack of access to information and resources, bureaucratic barriers, genetics, social relationships, and many more. To better understand the state of health inequalities in Finland, this study examined the relationship between social demographic factors, socioeconomic factors, social relationships, and subjective health guided by the Allardtian broad view of well-being. Methodology: The study employed a quantitative approach using secondary data from the European Social Survey (ESS round 10 - 2020). The data set consisted of 1577 participants and post-stratification weights (pspwght) that included design weights (dweight). Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS 29) was used to perform an analysis of variance and, the general linear model (GLM) to examine differences in the means of the perceived health variable across groups. Descriptive approaches such as direct distribution and means comparison, as well as tables and graphs, were used to present the analysis. Findings and Conclusions: The study has discovered that the majority of the population (67.9%) in Finland view their health favourably, either good or very good. There is also a statistically significant relationship between education, income, social relationships, age, and subjective health (p<0.001). However, there was no significant effect between men and women regarding subjective health, with a 95% confidence interval (CI) range of (-0.073; 0.073). Females tend to socialize more often than males. Subjects under 20 years old socialize frequently, with a mean of 5.95, while those over 80 years old are the least likely to socialize, with a mean of 4.29. These findings suggest that health inequalities exist in Finland based on socioeconomic status, social relationships, and age.