If you are a new mom and living below the poverty line, a new report shows your chance of having health problems are 20 times higher than new mothers with a living income.
The study analyzed data from more than 75,000 Canadian women who recently gave birth and one of the researchers says the results should be a wake-up call to governments.
Dr. Patricia O’Campo says the findings were startling and disturbing.
There have been many studies that linked poverty to poor health but she says this one took a broader approach and concluded that poverty impacts on a wide range of health issues.
“One really strong take away message that we took from this is that we need to pay attention to some of these social factors that are so important in determining the health status of an individual,” she says.
Aboriginal women are traditionally at the lower end of the income scale and show a disproportionate amount of health care problems amongst new moms – everything from low birth weight, post partum depression and abuse were higher than average.
Dr. O’Campo says social programs like affordable housing; access to education and employment could have a major impact on improving health care.
“If we were able to elevate the income of these low income mothers, we would be able to reduce the number of health care problems in this low income group by about 60 per cent,” she says.
The study was conducted by the Centre For Research On Inner City Health in Toronto.
It is the first survey to look at the results of poverty on a host of health issues.
The centre plans to do more research on the overall impact of poverty on health.
The goal is to encourage governments to implement social programs that address some of the root causes of poverty and the resulting health problems.