POVERTY AND HEALTH

 

Individuals, families, and communities within a population can be said to be living in poverty when they lack resources to obtain the type of diet, participate in lifestyle activities and have the living conditions and resources which are customary to the majority of the society in which these individuals, families and groups belong.

Objective and subjective measures of material deprivation have also been used as poverty measures; these can include celebrations, clothes appropriate for all weather, the ability to go on holiday and access to a car.

Poverty in the context of other health-affecting factors.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) Global Action Plan for the Prevention And Control of Noncommunicable Diseases had targeted seven risk factors.

These include use of alcohol, insufficient physical activity, tobacco use, increased blood pressure, elevated salt or sodium intake, diabetes and obesity. These are referred to as the 25 x 25 risk factors; through targeting these risk factors, the WHO hoped to reduce early death from non-communicable diseases by 25% by the year 2025.

The Global Burden Of Disease Collaboration, which is the largest study with monitoring health changes globally, has similarly found risk factors that are associated with the burden of disease and injury across 21 world regions.

Among them, poor socio-economic circumstances are one of the strongest predictors of morbidity and premature mortality across the world. However, poverty is not considered to be a modifiable risk factor across both of these important global health strategies.

According to a paper published in The Lancet and coordinated by Imperial College London, socioeconomic status has been found to produce the same impact on health as smoking or a sedentary lifestyle, being associated with a reduced life expectancy of 2.1 years, a figure comparable to being inactive (which is estimated to cause a reduction in life expectancy of 2.4 years).

Socio-economic status refers to the measure of an individual's or family’s economic and social position relative to others in a population. This is assessed on income, education and occupation. Despite these factors being known to affect health already independently, early studies have not compared the impact of low socioeconomic status with other major risk factors on health. Indeed, global health policies do not consider risk factors such as poverty and poor education when predicting health outcomes.

In a study, 1.7 million people across the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Portugal, Italy, the United States and Australia were surveyed. They compared individuals' socioeconomic status against several risk factors, including tobacco use, unhealthy diet, physical inactivity and alcohol abuse, as defined by the WHO. Overall, researchers determined that those of low socioeconomic status were 46% more likely to die early compared to wealthier counterparts.

The greatest risk factors as estimated by the number of years lost in expected life were compared to a range of other factors. The factors that contributed to the greatest number of years lost were smoking and diabetes, reducing life expectancy by 4.8 and 3.9 years respectively. High blood pressure, obesity, and high alcohol consumption were associated with fewer years lost; 1.6, 0.7, and 0.5 years respectively.

The results of this study demonstrated that low socio-economic status should be targeted alongside the conventional health risk factors as part of global and National Health strategies to minimize the risk of premature mortality.

What are the effects of poverty?

Poverty can impact people's health at all stages of life in several ways and impacts overall life expectancy. In England, for example, between 2009 and 2013, the life expectancy for those in the most deprived areas compared to the least deprived areas was 7.9 years greater for men and 5.9 years greater for women.

Moreover, the Kings' Fund found that between 1999 and 2010, the majority of areas in England that showed low life expectancy also showed high proportions of people earning minimal or no wages.

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