Family income linked to health issues more than neighborhood poverty

Medical Xpress December 10, 2024
Oxford University Press

A paper published in the Journal of Public Health finds that household income in early childhood is a stronger and more consistent predictor for several major health-related problems for 17-year-olds than growing up in a poor neighborhood. The neighborhood was a slightly stronger predictor for obesity only.

The Index of Multiple Deprivation, which assesses neighborhoods in the United Kingdom according to factors including unemployment, low levels of education, crime, and barriers to housing and services, has been used widely as a measure of deficiency over the past two decades to guide UK policymakers on health disparities.

The success of the index is due, in part, to its ready availability and linkage to administrative health and other datasets in the country....

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