Poverty and health essay

Abstract

The below mentioned paper is a reaction paper on Poverty and Health. Both of them are correlated but through this paper we shall go through and discuss whether poverty leads to ill health or poor health leads to poverty. Several research results and findings have been mentioned to support the fact.

Introduction

Poor health been considered as a result of poverty for long. It has been widely acknowledged that areas with higher figures of ill-health and malnutrition are prone to widespread poverty. Improper and insufficient diet intake among children leads to infection and malnutrition respectively and thus leading to poor health of the nation. Children are considered to be the future of every country and ensuring their good health is the collective responsibility of parents, general public and the government.

Cause Analysis:

According to me, the factors that give rise to poverty and ill health include the following:
– Lack of basic amenities
– Gender inequality
– Lack of cleanliness
– Lack of education and basic knowledge about sanitation
– Lack of sources of earnings
– Poor environment
– Inadequate care
– Deprived health services
– Marginal diet intake
– Limited employability
– High health care expense
– Lack of skills and abilities
– Lack of energy and clarity of thought.

Poverty and Health are correlated by two major indicators-

Access to health care and living conditions.
Poor people are more prone to experience stern living conditions that contribute more towards poor health. Conditions such as illness, risk of accidents and injury. Moreover, poor people do not have health insurance cover and have less access to health care facilities. They can hardly spend on health expenditures. They do not prefer visiting doctors to avoid expenses as they cannot afford high fees of well-qualified ones.
Keeping good health is a significant prerequisite for absconding poverty and undoubtedly, improved health contributes a lot towards growth and prosperity of a nation. The government of a country should aim at investing in common people’s health in order to improve a country’s common welfare and to promote economic growth. Most of the time they are unaware of the fact that they are eligible for med claims or not.

Analysis and Findings

Latest studies and findings have shown that women who are more unfit and malnourished tend to deliver low birth weight kids and therefore become the foremost cause of child nutrition. The foremost significance of child malnutrition as a cause of poverty is that it is independent of inflation figures and any sort of price information analysis. Studies reveal that the association between poverty and child nutrition is tough at the end of lower income range. There is a reduction in the occurrence of malnourished children from 34% to 17% with increasing GNP per capita from $300 to $400. Thus countries which rank lower on the GNP per capita are further prone to occurrence of underweight children.
A research finding reveals that 23. 3% of poor and uninsured children had not seen a doctor in one year.

Conclusion

Considering all the data and findings above, poor health appears to be the foremost cause and factor of poverty indicator. The data analysis of this paper very strongly supported by the fact that poor health/malnutrition is a poverty pointer and analytical of other advantageous results of development such as intra-household distribution, enhancement in gender empowerment etc.