Poor Kids – Sicker Adults?
November 9th, 2007 Posted by: Dr. Cox
(Ivanhoe Newswire) â Children who grow up poor are more likely to have Men’s health problems and die younger when they grow up â even if they rise out of poverty as adults.
Now researchers from Cornell University are helping to explain why. Their study of low income and middle income white children in upstate New York suggests poverty puts undue physiological stress on children that can compromise their Men’s health over the long haul.
The study measured overnight levels of a key stress hormone called cortisol in the children when they were 9 years old and again when they were 13. Researchers also tested the kids for blood pressure reactivity and recovery after exposure to a stressful situation. Results showed the longer kids had lived in poverty, the less able their bodies were to deal with stress.
âThese muted responses of stress regulatory mechanisms, which are part of the cardiovascular system, not only compromise the ability of the adolescentsâ bodies to respond to such stressors as noise, poor housing and family turmoil but also indicate they are suffering from more stress-induced physiological strain on their organs and tissues than other young people,â study author Gary Evans was quoted as saying.
The authors believe the results emphasize the price society pays for poverty. âPeople need to understand that not leveling the playing field when it comes to poverty costs everyone money,â continues Evans. âItâs very costly to society that low-income children end up getting sick prematurely and die younger than other people.â
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SOURCE: Psychological Science, published online Nov. 7, 2007