Being Poor is Bad for Your Health

There is extensive research that shows people with lower incomes have poorer health than people with higher incomes. A recently released report by the Population Health Initiative confirms the link between health and poverty. In fact, the report has a list of seven tips to help achieve good health. The first one is "don't be poor". Higher incomes allow people to purchase adequate food, housing and other basic necessities. Higher incomes also provide people with a greater sense of control over their lives and their economic futures. This feeling of control is essential to good health.

We've put together a few facts that show the various links between income and poverty.

· It took the poorest fifth of urban Canadians until the mid-1990s to reach the life expectancy experienced by the richest fifth 25 years earlier (1970s).

· The social and economic status of Aboriginal Peoples is lower than that of non-Aboriginal Canadians on almost every measure (e.g. housing, income, work status, education). Aboriginal Peoples have higher rates of poverty, die earlier and suffer a greater burden of illness than other Canadians.

· As income levels increase, health improves.

· Rich people live longer than poor people and they are healthier at every stage of life.

· Low-income neighbourhoods have the highest mortality rates.

· In 2000-01, Canadian adults aged 12 and over from highest income households were twice as likely (34%) to report being in excellent health compared with those from the lowest income households (16%).

· In 2000-01, unemployed adults aged 20-64 were nearly twice as likely to report problems with functional health (23%) as were people who were working (13%).

Poverty and Health Care

Canadians with low incomes were

· significantly more likely to report difficulty getting care on nights and weekends, or have problems seeing a specialist,

· 42% more likely to report going without dental care because of cost than high income Canadians (15%),

· 22% more likely to report going without medication due to cost than high-income Canadians (7%).

Sources: 2002 Statistics Canada study on income and health; "Improving the Health of Canadians" report by Population Health Initiative, 2004; Commonwealth Fund 2001 International Health Policy Survey