Posts Tagged ‘poverty’

As a part of their medium-term strategic plan the World Health Organization is calling for low-cost interventions that can help bolster the world’s economies. Such interventions include the distribution of vision corrective glasses to those who live in poverty. Studies have shown that blindness can contribute to poverty and those who are visually impaired have an increased risk of falling into lower socioeconomic classes and have higher rates of unemployment.

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A new Canadian study shows that poverty during a child’s toddler years can lead to shorter stature by the time they reach kindergarten, regardless of hereditary factors. The researchers stress that although Canada is an industrialized country with a universal healthcare system and accessible daycare, the country still has health inequalities directly related to poverty, such as poor nutrition and housing, medical problems, such as asthma, that can lead to shorter stature. One of the shortcomings of this research is that it doesn’t address whether these children will “catch up” to their peers during adolescence, or by the time they reach adulthood.

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