Poverty's Complex Impact on Health: The Validity of Poverty Driven Mortality Open Access

Abstract

This paper will discuss how poverty in Georgia is associated with different types of mortality, including chronic disease, infectious disease, and injury. By exploring which types of mortality are more or less strongly associated with poverty, policy makers can help address several top causes of death in Georgia, provide better health care accessibility to vulnerable populations, increase accessibility to other socioeconomic and psychosocial resources, and prioritize everyone's right to health. The hypothesis of this project is that poverty is more strongly associated with chronic disease and infectious disease related mortality than with injury related mortality because of poverty's impact on biological risk factors that lead to disease. By investigating how poverty affects disease and injury related mortality, this hypothesis can help future interventions better focus on how poverty related strategies might benefit many areas of health. This project utilizes a robust regression analysis and kitchen sink model to quantify poverty's relationship with different types of mortality and investigate whether poverty maintains its significance when other socioeconomic factors are considered. The results revealed that poverty had more significant positive relationships with mortalities in the chronic disease and infectious disease category than in the injury related mortality categories. By addressing the barriers that poverty produces, policy makers can work towards eliminating this human rights violation and better equalize access for all populations.

Table of Contents

I. Background and Historical Overview. 1

Introduction. 1

Social Causation v Social Selection. 2

Epidemiological Transition in the United States. 3

History, Trends, and Progression of Socioeconomic Health Research. 4

II. Original Component. 7

Overview. 7

Project Scope. 8

Methods. 10

Results. 14

III. Discussion. 23

Poverty Does not Act Alone. 23

Poverty and Chronic Disease Mortality. 28

Poverty and Infectious Disease Mortality. 34

Poverty and Injury Related Mortality. 39

IV. Conclusion. 44

Limitations. 44

Conclusions. 47

Appendix. 49

Works Cited. 61

About this Honors Thesis

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School	Emory College
Department	Economics
Degree	BA
Submission	Honors Thesis
Language	English
Research Field	Health Sciences, Public Health
Keyword	Poverty Mortality Health
Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor	Eisen, Arri, Emory University
Committee Members	Mukhopadhaya, Kaushik, Emory University Frederickson, Mary E., Emory University

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