Poverty & Health

• What links poverty & health?

  Causes of poor health globally are rooted in political, social & economic injustice

  Poverty is both a cause & a consequence of ill health
• What is poverty?

  When your resources are well below your minimum needs.
• Advances in medical knowledge & medical breakthroughs have lead to poverty reduction (due to sanitation, clean water, improved handling & transportation of food, places to give birth)
• How can material deprivation (poverty) lead to ill health?

  Malnutrition - weakened immunity & neurophysiological development

  Poor maternal nutrition - premature births & low birth weight

  Poor nutrition in childhood - inhibited growth & development

  Lack of hygiene facilities - infestations with scabies, head lice & intestinal worms

  Damp housing - upper resp tract infections, ease of spread of pathogens

  Lack of play facilities - hindered psychological development & increased risk of accidents

  Hazardous work conditions - physical exhaustion, risk of accidents
• What are 'infectious disease of poverty'?

  Number of infectious diseases commonly found in areas where poverty is high (HIV, malaria, TB)
• What are the psychological perspectives on poverty?

  Perceptions are negative, sterotyped as lacking competence

  Negative perceptions affect how people see themselves -> decreased confidence in their own ability -> psychological consequences -> reduced eductional & professional attainment
• What is poverty in childhood associated with?

  Genetic adaptation, producing short-term strategy to cope with stressful developmental environment

  Consistent reductions in cognitive performance across many areas (language & cognitive function)

  Resource scarcity induced 'scarcity mindset' -> increased focus on immediate goals at the expense of peripheral tasks & long-term planning

  Adverse childhood experiences associated with poorer health outcomes
• How does unemployment link to health?

  Stress -> mental & physical health effects

  
• Unemployment & Health

  Studies show that employed are in better health than the unemplyed

  Main cause of mortality among unemplyed -> malignant neoplasms (lung cancer), accidents, poisonings & violence (suicide)

  Poverty, social isolation, lack of self-esteem & damagin health-related behaviours are major factors associated with production of ill effects among unemployed
• What are the 2 types of poverty?

  Absolute poverty

  Relative poverty
• What is absolute poverty?

  A state of severe deprivation of basic human needs independent of economic growth
• What is relative poverty?

  Economic inequality in relation to the % below median income in country people live
• Income does not necessarily reflect levels on malnutrition, access to education & health facilities.
• Relative poverty differs among countries & over time. Uses current data & statistics.
• What is the capabilities approach?

  Shift focus from 'the means of living' to the 'actual opportunities a person has'

  Focus on what people are able to do & be, rather than on what they have
• How does the capability approach define poverty?

  Capability deprivation

  Lack of freedom for an individual to realise potential achievements
• What is the individualistic understanding of poverty?

  Poverty is a self-inflicted process -> people are poor because they are lazy

  alcohol & drug use are a matter of choice

  lack of education & job is a matter of choice

  the poor are ill because they don't look after their own health
• What is the structuralist understanding of poverty?

  Poverty is a consequence of structual forces in society

  Lack of access to opportunities, unequal distribution of resources, discrimination

  Choices concerning health are made within tight social & economic constraints
• What is intersectionality?

  Poverty is harsher if you have other characteristics of disadvantage (woman, person of colour, disability or health condition)
• Health is political

  Unequal distribution - some social groups gain more than others

  Health determinants - social determinants (housing & income)

  Organisation - any purposeful activity to enhance health needs

  Citezenship - the right to 'a standard of living adequate for health & well-being'

  Globalisation - complexity of worldwide crises - impact on us all & contribute to ill health & avoidable deaths