New study calculates number of deaths caused by poverty

New study calculates number of deaths caused by poverty
The Globe and Mail
July 4, 2011

Hightlights:

In an article published online for the June 16 issue of the American Journal of Public Health, scientists calculated the number of deaths attributable to each of six social factors, including low income.

For 2000, the study attributed 176,000 deaths to racial segregation and 133,000 to individual poverty. The numbers are substantial. For example, looking at direct causes of death, 119,000 people in the United States die from accidents each year, and 156,000 from lung cancer.

Social factors are not the same as diseases or accidents, but Dr. Galea argues that they are equivalent to behaviours like smoking, and that, as with smoking, there is evidence of the mechanism involved. He said that the causal chain between, for example, poverty and death from heart disease has many well-established links.

Dr. Galea, who is the chairman of the department of epidemiology at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University, also said that poverty results in poor access to health screening, poor access to quality care for those who actually have heart disease, greater vulnerability to stresses associated with heart disease and a greater likelihood of engaging in unhealthy behaviour.

Another article on the study:

Death by Poverty

Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health

June 16, 2011