Shona Thomas
P3 – Explain patterns and trends in health and illness among different social groupings
M2 – compare sociological explanations for different patterns and trends
D1 – Evaluate the way patterns and trends in health and illness are measured
There are different ways in which an individual can measure health, this can be through
different patterns and trends which are observed within society. The information which is
gathered can come from a variety of sources which improves the accuracy of the result as it
will apply to more people.
The measurements of health and ill health are generally statistical trends within society
ranging around different illnesses, the trends are generally gathered from three places which
would include;
The government statistics, this is “Official statistics are statistics published by government
agencies or other public bodies such as international organizations”1 so it is therefore
trustworthy and reliable information. The ONS which is the Office of National Statistics does
manage to provide data through many publications to relate back to health and social care
statistics, this includes “social trends, population trends and health statistical quarterly” 2
which is mainly for the use of gathering information about health issues. By the ONS getting
such a wide range of information it means that the government is able to provide a wide
range of birth and death rates which also include suicide and infant mortality rates. They are
also able to know the admissions in a hospital, appointments in a surgery. The information
which is gathered is usually separated by “class, gender, geographical location or age”.
Meaning that each individual is categorised to make it easier for the information to be
transferred into a statistic.
Another source would be charitable organisations and special interest groups, which is “a
group of people or an organization seeking or receiving special advantages, typically through
political lobbying”3. Therefore they both aim to gather information on health and ill health
but also hope to share it too, this means that we are more informed as a country as well as
individuals about health and ill health. An example of this would be the charity ‘mind’ which
1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Official_statistic
2 OCR textbook
3 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_Interest_Group
P3 – Explain patterns and trends in health and illness among different social groupings
M2 – compare sociological explanations for different patterns and trends
D1 – Evaluate the way patterns and trends in health and illness are measured
There are different ways in which an individual can measure health, this can be through
different patterns and trends which are observed within society. The information which is
gathered can come from a variety of sources which improves the accuracy of the result as it
will apply to more people.
The measurements of health and ill health are generally statistical trends within society
ranging around different illnesses, the trends are generally gathered from three places which
would include;
The government statistics, this is “Official statistics are statistics published by government
agencies or other public bodies such as international organizations”1 so it is therefore
trustworthy and reliable information. The ONS which is the Office of National Statistics does
manage to provide data through many publications to relate back to health and social care
statistics, this includes “social trends, population trends and health statistical quarterly” 2
which is mainly for the use of gathering information about health issues. By the ONS getting
such a wide range of information it means that the government is able to provide a wide
range of birth and death rates which also include suicide and infant mortality rates. They are
also able to know the admissions in a hospital, appointments in a surgery. The information
which is gathered is usually separated by “class, gender, geographical location or age”.
Meaning that each individual is categorised to make it easier for the information to be
transferred into a statistic.
Another source would be charitable organisations and special interest groups, which is “a
group of people or an organization seeking or receiving special advantages, typically through
political lobbying”3. Therefore they both aim to gather information on health and ill health
but also hope to share it too, this means that we are more informed as a country as well as
individuals about health and ill health. An example of this would be the charity ‘mind’ which
1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Official_statistic
2 OCR textbook
3 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_Interest_Group
