Panel links poverty to stress, illness

from Myrtle Beach Sun News

By Laura Giovanelli

Being poor is one of the greatest risks to people's health in Winston-Salem, local public-health and social-services experts said.

The officials were a panel of experts in public health, homelessness, housing and legal aid that met this week as part of the Crossing 52 Initiative discussion, "The Inequities of Health Care in Winston-Salem."

About 35 people gathered for the discussion at First Baptist Church on Highland Avenue.

Crossing 52 is a group devoted to improving race relations.

"There's no single factor of a person's state in life that's more likely to determine their health than whether they live in poverty," said Dr. Tim Monroe, Forsyth County's health director.

Poor people are more likely to live in substandard housing, or be homeless, the panelists said. They might be hungry, but they are also under more stress with fewer resources, which can lead to poor nutrition and possibly obesity and associated risks such as diabetes, hypertension and joint problems.

Tobacco use and obesity are Forsyth County's two leading preventable causes of death, Monroe said, something that is true of North Carolina as a whole.

But being poor - living at or below the federal poverty line - and being black are the two top demographic indicators of bad health, Monroe said.

Stress can't be separated from the former, he said.

"One of the things that we need to recognize is that being poor does not contribute to poor health just by limiting one's access to health care," he said. "It does in many, many other ways create poor health and much of it has to do with the constant stresses and uncertainties of those kinds of experiences.

"Not knowing for sure if you can pay the bills, that's an experience that most of us have never had to have," Monroe said.

"But many people live with this all time."

Racial and health disparities are indicators that show higher incidence rates of cancer, stoke, diabetes homicide, heart disease, infant morality and other problems among people who are not white and have low incomes.