Health & Income

The relationship between income and health is well documented and researched. The basic premise is that the wealthier an individual is the healthier he or she will also be “The higher an individual’s income, the better his or her health” (Kawachi, and Kennedy, 1999, 1). However, high levels of income promote good health for more reasons than the individual’s ability to pay or access to health care services. Higher levels of income also are found among those who are more educated and aware of health prevention and maintenance, from exercise to diet. However, new research evidence suggests wealth and income levels have an impact on health in another way. Namely, in countries with more equal levels of income distribution individuals exhibit higher levels of health overall than individuals in those countries with unequal income distribution. This finding is significant because income inequality affects individual health levels for the poorest segments of society. Such a condition arises due to the fact that in such a society too few dollars may be spent on social goods such as public education and health care. With a growing income inequality in the U.S. and a worsening health care crisis, this analysis will review literature pertinent to income inequality and its affects on individual health levels. A conclusion will address the significance of the findings in this research.

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) argue that in order to understand the association between income inequality and individual health levels, one most examine the “structural causes of inequalities, and not just focus on perceptions of that inequality.” Lynch (et al., 2000) provide a neo-material interpretation of the association between income inequality and health levels. This interpretation sees health inequalities arising as a result of the differential accumulation of exposures and experiences in the material world “The effect of income inequality on health reflects a combination of negative exposures and lack of resources held by individuals, along with systematic underinvestment across a wide range of human, physical, health, and social infrastructure” (Lynch, et al., 2000, 4). Yet, the authors warn that neo-material conditions are but one social factor that affect overall population health. The continual finding in the literature that the income inequality is growing in the U.S. is cause for criticism across the literature in light of the fact that the U.S. as the richest nation in the world has little excuse for failing to invest monies in social goods. This problem continues to worsen. As Noring (2000, 1) reports “The U.S. has one of the world’s hi
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Kawachi Kennedy, Fiscella Franks, Canada Canada, Kaplan House, Ross Backlund, Greece Noring, Peter Franks, income inequality, REVIEW Despite, United Income, Online ProQuestcom, population health, health care, individual health, health levels, income inequality health, inequality mortality, individual health levels, income inequality mortality, inequality health, individual income, association income, levels income, association income inequality, effective health care,
Approximate Word count = 2381
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page)

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