Page 89 - Human Rights

Faculty of Nursing
Adult care Nursing Department

Another association of the greatest importance in health, besides inequalities (namely the income

and gender gap), is the existence of a social support network; this is reflected, among other things,

in the population’s average life expectancy.

Social support of persons in need protects them against health risks and promotes prevention
strategies.

The family’s role, as the nuclear unit of society, has received attention from social epidemiology
for being a decisive factor in the protection of health.

The family contributes to the education of any person in a decisive and integral way.

Its appreciation is instrumental in promoting social cohesion and the sustained improvement of a

society’s health indicators, regardless of the specific concept of family and the cultural reality in

which it is inserted.

Therefore, protecting families from poverty is of fundamental importance.

Notwithstanding the fact that poverty is multidimensional, techniques such as the Alike–Foster

method should be implemented to address this issue (Alike and Foster 2011).

Further, child-specific deprivation, namely monetary child poverty and material deprivation,
should be considered as essential elements for truly promoting health (Ch Zhen et al. 2016).

Implementing measures to reduce social inequalities and improve the average level of

socioeconomic status is not the sole responsibility of the family; the family must also contribute

to increasing literacy levels of the children.

Moreover, a detailed assessment and interpretation of data on this subject appear to show a

marked improvement in the household’s role at the global scale, though there is still no concerted

cross-sector intervention targeting this issue (Oni et al. 2019).

86 Academic Year 2025/2026