Poverty & Health Inequalities

CHEX aims to stimulate the debate by exploring the links between poverty and health inequalities and highlighting the health impact caused through poverty and health inequalities. We bring our knowledge and expertise as community development practitioners with the Community Health Exchange (CHEX) and demonstrate the use of community development as an essential approach in tackling poverty and inequalities at a local level.

Poverty and Health Inequalities - Inextricably Linked

Extensive research has informed insights into the interrelationships between the socio-economic state of people, their quality of life and their life expectancy. Since the Black Report in early 1980s, the increasing gap in British health and life expectancy has been well documented, highlighting the differences experienced by people living in poverty and those living in prosperity.

Recently, R.Wilkinson (Impact of Inequality 2005) has developed his previously researched themes on the status of those in poverty to show that income poverty is further compounded by the experience of inequalities in access to services and in the quality of social relations in and between different socio-economic groupings.

Income poverty is perhaps more easily measured. The British Medical Journal (BMJ) (April, 2005) profiled evidence of the stark contrast between the poorest 10 per cent of Britain’s population who are in receipt of three per cent of the total income, and the wealthiest 10 percent who are in receipt of more than a quarter of the total income. Coupled with evidence on life expectancy between those living in Britain’s least healthy area of Glasgow City and healthiest area of Britain, East Dorset, shows 11 years of a difference for men and 8.4 yrs for women.

CHEX presented the paper - 'Tackling Health Inequality Through Tackling Poverty' at a Poverty Alliance discussion forum in Spring 2006.  To download the full paper click here