The Spirit Level Summary
The main topic the second section; place matters, is the reasons why something as simple as your street address can be an influential predictor on your health. Within this section of the movie there were three arguments; the first consists of two direct causes of impact on residents’ health, which were; built space and social environment. The next was how the conditions of neighborhoods have an indirect impact on health by making healthy choices either unreachable, extremely hard, or easy. These two arguments were shown through the increase of Latinos and Asians who have been moving into the deteriorating, predominantly black, urban neighborhoods of Richmond, California. The diminishing neighborhoods caused little access to job opportunities,
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There was a specific example with one working mom who had a son with asthma; she stated that it costs about 3,000 dollars a year in hospital bills because of the pollution (Wilkinson and Pickett 2009). People of Richmond are at high risk for asthma, diabetes, and lower life expectancy. There are barely any fresh fruits and vegetables, and few places that are safe to play and get exercise. This puts a huge strain on the child obesity and hospitalization due to the inability of quality affordable housing. In chapter three of “The Spirit Level”, the authors address the impact of geographical mobility, that since we come into contact with more strangers, there is a greater chance for sickness (Wilkinson and Pickett 2009). As time continues the social conditions get worse, as conditions deplete so does health. The movie showed a perfect example of this, which stated that living in a disadvantaged neighborhood leads to a 50-80% increase in risk for heart disease. The main cause of this is chronic stress. Chronic stress consists of people constantly worrying about issues especially due to their surroundings. This can include; violence, little nutritious food, polluted environment, and poor schools just to name a few (Wilkinson and Pickett
There was a specific example with one working mom who had a son with asthma; she stated that it costs about 3,000 dollars a year in hospital bills because of the pollution (Wilkinson and Pickett 2009). People of Richmond are at high risk for asthma, diabetes, and lower life expectancy. There are barely any fresh fruits and vegetables, and few places that are safe to play and get exercise. This puts a huge strain on the child obesity and hospitalization due to the inability of quality affordable housing. In chapter three of “The Spirit Level”, the authors address the impact of geographical mobility, that since we come into contact with more strangers, there is a greater chance for sickness (Wilkinson and Pickett 2009). As time continues the social conditions get worse, as conditions deplete so does health. The movie showed a perfect example of this, which stated that living in a disadvantaged neighborhood leads to a 50-80% increase in risk for heart disease. The main cause of this is chronic stress. Chronic stress consists of people constantly worrying about issues especially due to their surroundings. This can include; violence, little nutritious food, polluted environment, and poor schools just to name a few (Wilkinson and Pickett