5/26

Unnatural Causes: In Sickness and in Wealth

    In this Unnatural Causes episode, researchers explain the correlation between social and income inequalities and good health. The video explains the social determinants of health and how they relate to our overall well-being, with specific regards to chronic health problems and life expectancy. The video teaches that more than eating well and exercising, social conditions factor into our overall well-being as a result of the stress socioeconomic status brings or alleviates. In explaining this problematic correlation, one researcher says, “There are ways in which our society’s organized that are bad for our health.” He goes on to explain that death rates and illness are positively correlated to socioeconomic status. It makes sense to me that people in poor communities wouldn’t have easy access to healthy foods, that they would struggle financially, and that underfunded schools mean a worse education which means less socioeconomic mobility. However, I didn’t know of all health problems that were linked to socioeconomic stagnance and lack of choice.

 

    After reading about racial disparities last week, I asked in the talking points about how a lack of education affects the health and well-being of underserved communities. Just as these inequalities provide some communities with poorer schools and less academic resources, so do they make those same communities more susceptible to health problems and earlier deaths. This video confirms that class is an important determinant of our health and well-being; if we receive good education, we are more likely to have choices in our lives and jobs, which will alleviate stress and allow us to live longer, healthier lives.

 

    Education offers us ways to improve our health because it gives us access to better jobs. However, as the video points out, you have to be able to afford that education. This often means paying higher taxes to live in a more affluent neighborhood with a safer school system funded by taxpayers. And disparities between neighborhoods don’t just end with better education and more job opportunities: access to financial security and healthy foods and lifestyles are dependent upon the wealth of the communities as well. Burnell Colton, an entrepreneur and local resident of the lower ninth ward in New Orleans, recognized this disparity and took action. He opened a grocery store in the middle of a vast food desert and committed himself to helping a disadvantaged and underserved community. The map below illustrates the food deserts that exist in New Orleans. If the highlighted communities lack basic resources, they are also likely to lack good school systems, which therefore, according to the video, signal a stressed population whose well-being is compromised because of the social inequalities that exist around them.

 

    I hope to see local policymakers taking studies like these into consideration in their discourse on education. Like the video says, “economic policy is health policy.” If politicians don’t account for the socioeconomic disparities that exist within Providence, for example, the school system will never become equitable, and the poorer populations will face more disadvantages than the politicians’ decisions imply.