The relationship between income and child health in the US
Thesis statement: Poverty is an essential determinant of health and largely contributes to child health disparities. Children who experience poverty, particularly during early age or for an extended period, may develop adverse health problems in their life course.
Low income or poverty in the raising of children causes various circumstances like; high infant mortality, poor language development, chronic illness such as asthma, more deficient nutrition, among others. Again, child poverty influences brain development by exposure to toxic stress, which is caused by prolonged activation of the psychological stress-responsive systems based on concerns such as inadequate food, energy, housing, and less access to quality health care (Halfon, Neal, et al. S70-S78).
Besides, child poverty is associated with neuroendocrine dysregulation, which may alter the functionality of the brain and contribute to the development of chronic cardiovascular, immune, and psychiatric disorders. Based on the higher rates of poor health and chronic health problems among children who live in poverty, it is clear that the inability to access preventive, curative, emergency care, and immunizations attribute to all these poor health conditions.
Poverty is prevalent in the United States, and disproportionately affects children. Economic and demographic trends indicate that rates of child poverty and deprivation are not declining but worsening in many parts of the country. Poverty and the culture surrounding it have a significant and persuasive impact on the health and development of children. Multiple risk factors converge in low-income families, thereby increasing children’s risks for chronic complications or health problems, school failure, which may, in turn, lead to births in the adolescent stage, among other poor outcomes (Martinson et al, 748-754).
Conclusively, without economic and other supportive interventions, many of these children will be caught in a cycle of poverty and despair, perpetuating and perhaps growing the size of an underclass in the wealthiest nation on earth, the United States.
Works cited
Halfon, Neal, et al. “Income inequality and the differential effect of adverse childhood experiences in US children.” Academic Pediatrics 17.7 (2017): S70-S78.
Martinson, Melissa L., and Nancy E. Reichman. “Socioeconomic inequalities in low birth weight in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia.” American journal of public health 106.4 (2016): 748-754.