Poverty Causes Early Death, Mental Illness

Monitor Wire Services

Earlier studies reported in the Monitor showed that poverty is an birth risk with infant mortality 60 percent higher than average, and that poverty and early learning opportunities -- not race -- also account for the IQ gap touted in books such as "The Bell Curve." The new research papers found that poverty is a major cause of mental illness and also leads to early death.

"This is surprising," said Dr. John W. Lynch of the University of Michigan, who headed the team that conducted the study. "It wouldn't be surprising if we found higher death rates in places with lower per capita incomes. We already know that low-income individuals have worse health. But what we've shown here is that the way income is shared is a much more important determinant of health and mortality than average income."

The epidemiologists found that the poorest sections of U.S. cities had about 1,400 more deaths per million. "That's equivalent to the combined loss of life from diabetes, lung cancer, motor vehicle accidents, HIV infection, suicide, and homicide in 1995," said Lynch.

The gap between rich and poor may affect health and mortality in several different ways, he noted. Previous studies have found that areas with higher income inequality spend less on public services -- including public health, hospitals, and education -- than areas with less income disparity. All of these factors can affect death rates, Lynch pointed out.

"It might be, for example, that places with higher income inequality have less affordable public housing, so that existing public housing is more crowded," he explained. "In conditions of greater crowding, you have more disease, and may have higher mortality. That's one way inequality can be related to higher mortality."

A wide gap between rich and poor may also contribute to a higher death rate by creating "a generally undesirable social climate that's inherently more stressful," he added.

Lynch and a team of researchers examined the link between income inequality and mortality in 282 U.S. metropolitan areas. This was the first-known study designed to estimate the total mortality costs of economic inequality across metropolitan areas of the United States.

"The United States has some of the highest income inequalities in the world. The United States is only exceeded by some of the former Soviet states. One obvious policy implication of these findings is that serious steps should be taken by business and government to reduce the income disparities within the United States," Lynch said.

The study, "Income Inequality and Mortality in the Metropolitan Areas of the United States," appeared in the July issue of the American Journal of Public Health.

Reporting in the British Medical Journal, Dr Scott Weich from the Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine and Professor Glyn Lewis from the University of Wales discovered that financial strain was a powerful predictor of both the start and continuation of these emotional problems, even after taking account of different standards of living.