Unhealthy Choices May Not Be Your Fault: How Poverty Shapes Our Lives
Smoking, drinking, pulling all-night benders. If these sound familiar to you, you are not alone. Researchers are starting to see the links between activities that harm us in the long run, with poor socioeconomic status.
Unhealthy Choices May Not Be Your Fault: How Poverty Shapes Our Lives
Smoking, drinking, pulling all-night benders. If these sound familiar to you, you are not alone. Researchers are starting to see the links between activities that harm us in the long run, with poor socioeconomic status.
Researchers in Iran surveyed 3,518 adults from 2024 to 2025 to see how socioeconomic status (SES), primarily based on household income affects the likelihood of being embroiled in various unhealthy behaviors.
The researchers were interested in finding out which behaviors were more frequent in those living in lower socioeconomic status.
Main Findings
The research found that people in the poorest group showed significantly higher rates of:
Physical inactivity: 53.4% vs 41.2% in the richest
Infrequent dental flossing: 63.7% vs 30.1%
Infrequent tooth brushing: 27.4% vs 8.5%
Poor sleep quality: 27.2% vs 9.7%
Skipping breakfast: 58.2% vs 47.6%
Alcohol consumption, however, was more common among the richest group (22.5%) than the poorest (10.7%)
Smoking rates were somewhat similar but still higher among the poorest (26.5%) than the richest (21.2%)
Measuring Inequality
In order to get the most accurate results, the researchers used two methods:
Inequality ratios: Comparing prevalence in poorest vs richest.
Concentration Index (CI): A statistic that shows whether unhealthy behaviors are more common among the poor (negative CI) or the rich (positive CI).
The researchers found that most unhealthy behaviors (physical inactivity, poor sleep, poor tooth brushing, flossing) had a negative CI, meaning they were significantly more common in poorer groups.
Alcohol consumption was the only vice that had a positive CI, meaning it was the only unhealthy practice in their initial list that was more likely to be practiced by the affluent.
They also looked at differences by sex:
Physical inactivity was more skewed toward poorer men.
Alcohol consumption was especially concentrated among wealthier women
Getting To The Root
People with lower income in the study were much more likely to:
Not exercise enough: you have less spare time if you are working multiple jobs to avoid poverty. On the opposite end, you might be less likely to engage in physical activity if your financial and mental state is below average.
Neglect dental care: also a common symptom among the chronically depressed. People are less likely to take care of themselves in poverty.
Sleep poorly: People living in poverty might avoid sleep if they are prone to worrying, or sleep erratically
Skip breakfast: People living below the poverty line might have less income to spare on the most important meal of the day.
These differences are consistent to suggest that economic disadvantages create barriers to healthy living (like limited resources, poorer living conditions, and less motivation)
Dr. Eddie Ramirez has stated the fact that poor health habits tend to cluster (meaning one unhealthy behavior often comes with others) highlights the need for integrated efforts to support lifestyle improvements in disadvantaged communities
What You Can Do To Help
Firstly, it is very important to realize the disadvantaged and the poor need the help of those who are more privileged than them. Many living in poverty came to be due to catastrophic incidents (such as the loss of a caretaker or breadwinner), and many of our less-advantaged neighbours work very hard to sustain themselves.
Asides from charities, volunteering for soup kitchens is an excellent way to give back to your community.
Our societies in the future should do their best to focus on building and strengthening communities, and focusing on the overall wellbeing of its society, rather than putting profits over people.
Sources:
Check out Dr. Eddie Ramirez's social medias for expert health news:
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