Study poverty affects health

Feeling poverty with a greater impact on health

02/21/2014

It has long been known that poor people become ill more often and more likely to die. The reasons for this are mentioned, for example, deficits in nutrition and medical care. The research team headed by Maja Adena from the Social Science Research Center Berlin (WZB) and Michal Myck from the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW) in Berlin and the Center for Economic Analysis in Szczecin has now examined the connections between perceived poverty and health.

In their study, the researchers examined the effects of subjective poverty on health in people over the age of 50 in Germany and eleven other European countries. The data were based on the representative population survey „Survey of Health, Aging and Retirement in Europe (SHARE)“ from the years 2006 to 2012. The evaluation has shown that the subjective sense of poverty has a very far-reaching effect on the health of the subjects unfolded, while actual income differences played here apparently hardly a role, reports the WZB.

Relative wealth and subjective poverty with health effects
In their study, researchers have identified three different forms of poverty (by income, wealth and subjective assessment) and analyzed their impact on health. Poverty according to relative income is the most common definition, but surprisingly, according to the researchers, there was no connection with health or life expectancy. „However, wider definitions of poverty, such as subjective poverty or low relative wealth, increase the likelihood of poorer health and reduce the likelihood of recovery over the analyzed period“, Write Maja Adena and Michal Myck. In addition, the investigations have revealed, „that the subjective sense of poverty significantly increases the mortality rate.“

Increased risk of dying with perceived poverty
The analysis of the data showed that older people who consider themselves poor, significantly more often (38 percent) fall ill and more likely to suffer a health setback (48 percent), reports the research team to Adena and Myck. They were also more likely to die earlier - „in men of this age group by 40 percent“, so the message of the WZB. According to the researchers, the income of the subjects had hardly any influence on how healthy or ill people were in the examined age group. But in terms of relative poverty, the researchers found that people over the age of 50, with little or no assets, are more likely to get sick more often and to recover more slowly after an illness.

New definitions of poverty required
Overall, the study found little overlap between the various forms of poverty, Adena and Myck continue. „Only eight percent of respondents are considered poor in all three definitions (income, wealth, subjective assessment).“ The study makes it clear that poverty is multifaceted. In this case, the subjective perception of poverty actually plays a much larger role than previously assumed in the professional world. The scientists conclude that in the future, broader definitions of poverty will be needed to map, for example, poverty in old age and its consequences. By no means only income should be used to measure poverty. (Fp)