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Articles in Income is one of the strongest and most consistent predictors of health and disease in public health research literature.
The adoption of a living wage is associated with decreases in premature death from all causes for working adults. Among the offspring of low-wage workers, a living wage was associated with improved educational outcomes and a reduced risk of early childbirth.
Yen I, and Bhatia R. 2002. How Increasing the Minimum Wage Might Affect the Health Status of San Francisco Residents: A Discussion of the Links Between Income and Health, Working Paper, February 27, 2002.
Bhatia R, Katz M. 2001. Estimation of the health benefits from a living wage ordinance. Am J Public Health 91:1398-1402.A review found that lower socioeconomic status was adversely associated with psychosocial factors linked to coronary heart disease, particularly hostility and depression.
Skodova Z, Nagyova I, van Dijk JP, Sudzinova A, Vargova H, Studencan M, Reijneveld SA. 2008. Socioeconomic differences in psychosocial factors contributing to coronary heart disease: A review. Journal Of Clinical Psychology In Medical Settings 15(3):204-213.A Danish cohort study found that men with low childhood or adult social class had a higher risk of being frail in middle-age, having poor dental status, and having poor self-rated health than men from the highest social classes.
Osler M, Madsen M, Andersen AMN, Avlund K. Mcgue M. Jeune B. Christensen. 2009. Do childhood and adult socioeconomic circumstances influence health and physical function in middle-age? Social Science & Medicine 68(8):1425-1431.Low socioeconomic position during both childhood and adulthood were associated with poorer self-rated health.
Chittleborough CR, Taylor AW, Baum FE, Hiller JE. 2009. Monitoring inequities in self-rated health over the life course in population surveillance systems. American Journal of Public Health 99 (4): 680-689.Prevalence of obesity and type 2 diabetes is higher among groups with the lowest levels of income and education and in the most deprived areas.
Drewnowski A. 2009. Obesity, diets, and social inequalities. Nutrition Reviews 67(5): S36-S39.People with lower incomes have higher risks than people with higher incomes for giving birth to low birth weight babies, for suffering injuries or violence, for getting most cancers, and for getting chronic conditions.
Yen IH and Syme SL. 1999. The Social Environment and Health: A Discussion of the Epidemiologic Literature. Annual Review of Public Health. 20:287-308.People with average family incomes of $15,000 to $20,000 were three times as likely to die prematurely as those with family incomes greater than $70,000.
Yen IH, Bhatia R. 2002. How Increasing the Minimum Wage Might Affect the Health Status of San Francisco Residents: A Discussion of the Links Between Income and Health. Working Paper. February 27.Women in the lowest fifth of income were more likely than women in the highest fifth of income to report depressive symptoms (33% vs. 9%) and fair/poor health (15% vs. 2%).
Kahn RS, Wise PH, Kennedy BP, Kawachi I. 2000. State income inequality, household income, and maternal mental and physical health: cross sectional national survey. British Medical Journal 321(7272):1311-1315.Attainment of self-sufficiency income predicts better health, improved nutrition, and lower mortality.
National Academy of Sciences. 2006. Genes, Behavior, and the Social Environment: Moving Beyond the Nature/Nurture Debate. LM Hernandez and DG Blazer, eds. The National Academies Press. Accessed at: HYPERLINK "http://orsted.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=11693&page=25."Individuals who experience more frequent episodes of income loss are likely to have higher levels of depression.
Prause J, Dooley D, Huh J. 2009. Income volatility and psychological depression. American Journal of Community Psychology 43(1-2): 57-70.