[Ibadan Journal of Sociology, June, 2019, 9 ]
[© 2014-2019 Ibadan Journal of Sociology]75environment for under-five children by their mothers will influence their
well-being. The unequal distribution of these needs especially among the
urban poor may affect their health seeking behaviour for the under-five
children when compared to those who are privileged to have more access to
these needs.
According to Braveman et al. (2011), the key role of SDoH
framework is to reduce persistent disparities in health outcomes in the
society, which have been closely linked to differences in social, economic,
and environmental factors. These reductions in inequalities may cut across
conditions that give rise to poor attendance at school, homelessness,
marginalization, unemployment, access to recreation centers, and good
foods. These would help improve the key health behaviours among mothers
while advancing positive health outcomes for under-five children in the
society.
As Anglin et al. (2013) argued there are social and physical
conditions in the environment especially the condition to which “people are
born, live, learn, work, and play that affect people’s health status, ability to
function, and quality of life” (p. 3). These conditions are structural in nature
because they are not only amenable to individual-related behavioural
changes, but may limit their opportunities for good health choices, at the
same time affecting the whole community. These however, influence
inequities in health and differentials in health of under-five children within
the sphere of the society.
In their presentation, Anglin and colleagues (2013) pointed out that
the connections between factors like education, neighbourhood/built
environment, health care, economic stability, and social context play key
roles in SDoH within the society (See Figure 1). For example, the quality of
housing, cases of crime and violence, environmental conditions, and access
to healthy foods (Neighborhood/built environment) impact significantly on
children’s health outcomes, while the absence of these variables in the
households negatively affect the health outcomes of the people in the
society. Similarly, the rate of graduates, educational policies that support
promotion of health, availability of school environment conducive to
learning, and the proportion of women enrollment in higher education may
positively influence health outcomes, while the absence of these could
negatively affect the health outcomes of the entire population. This implies
that education serves as the mediating factor between social and other
environmental conditions that promote health outcomes in the society.
The framework further assumed that economic stability is
instrumental in health outcomes. A society with high prevalence of poverty
and unemployment may stand the risk of high morbidity and mortality as a