You're using an outdated browser. Please upgrade to a modern browser for the best experience.
Submitted Successfully!
Thank you for your contribution! You can also upload a video entry or images related to this topic. For video creation, please contact our Academic Video Service.
Version Summary Created by Modification Content Size Created at Operation
1 Val Livingston -- 793 2025-02-07 08:19:29 |
2 layout Camila Xu Meta information modification 793 2025-02-07 08:24:36 |

Video Upload Options

We provide professional Academic Video Service to translate complex research into visually appealing presentations. Would you like to try it?
No, upload directly Yes
Cite
If you have any further questions, please contact Encyclopedia Editorial Office.
Livingston, V.; Jackson-Nevels, B.; Brown-Meredith, E.; Campbell, A.; Mitchell, B.D.; Riddley, C.; Tetteh, A.O.; Reddy, V.V.; Williams, A. Poverty, Allostasis, and Chronic Health Conditions: Health Disparities Across the Lifespan. Encyclopedia. Available online: https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/57825 (accessed on 22 December 2025).
Livingston V, Jackson-Nevels B, Brown-Meredith E, Campbell A, Mitchell BD, Riddley C, et al. Poverty, Allostasis, and Chronic Health Conditions: Health Disparities Across the Lifespan. Encyclopedia. Available at: https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/57825. Accessed December 22, 2025.
Livingston, Val, Breshell Jackson-Nevels, Erica Brown-Meredith, Alexis Campbell, Brandon D. Mitchell, Candace Riddley, Alicia O. Tetteh, Velur Vedvikash Reddy, Aquila Williams. "Poverty, Allostasis, and Chronic Health Conditions: Health Disparities Across the Lifespan" Encyclopedia, https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/57825 (accessed December 22, 2025).
Livingston, V., Jackson-Nevels, B., Brown-Meredith, E., Campbell, A., Mitchell, B.D., Riddley, C., Tetteh, A.O., Reddy, V.V., & Williams, A. (2025, February 07). Poverty, Allostasis, and Chronic Health Conditions: Health Disparities Across the Lifespan. In Encyclopedia. https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/57825
Livingston, Val, et al. "Poverty, Allostasis, and Chronic Health Conditions: Health Disparities Across the Lifespan." Encyclopedia. Web. 07 February, 2025.
Peer Reviewed
Poverty, Allostasis, and Chronic Health Conditions: Health Disparities Across the Lifespan
This is a peer-reviewed entry published in Encyclopedia Journal, full entry can be found at 10.3390/encyclopedia5010016

Definition: Poverty is an important social determinant of health disparities across the lifespan. Poverty also influences other life challenges such as pecuniary instability, food insecurity, housing instability, educational inequality, and limited career mobility. According to the World Bank, more than 700 million people worldwide live in global poverty, surviving on less than USD 2.15 a day. Poverty may also be viewed as a state of deprivation that limits access to resources that address basic needs (i.e., food, water, shelter, clothing, health), limiting an individual’s opportunity to participate optimally in society. A large body of research has identified a positive relationship between poverty and chronic health concerns such as heart disease, diabetes, high cholesterol, kidney problems, liver problems, cancer, and hypertension. This entry examines health disparities associated with economic status, discrimination, racism, stress, age, race/ethnicity, gender, gender identity, and nationality from a social justice perspective.

health disparities allostasis chronic stress chronic health concerns poverty discrimination
The National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities [1] defines health disparities as the occurrence of diseases at greater levels among marginalized groups compared to a reference group. Reference groups may include race/ethnicity, gender, gender expression, socioeconomic status, nationality, religion, ableism, and age. It is important to note that health disparities reflect the preventable differences in the morbidity and mortality rates experienced by disadvantaged groups [1]. These preventable differences suggest the opportunity for a reduction in the health burden for these groups. Poverty and race/ethnicity are two important social determinants of health disparities since both are known to influence other life outcomes such as food insecurity, economic insecurity, housing instability, educational inequality, and overall well-being. This discourse utilizes a nuanced life course perspective to examine chronic health conditions influenced by environmental stressors such as poverty, racism, and discrimination, centering health and well-being as basic needs and human rights issues.
The World Bank [2] purported that more than 700 million people worldwide live in global poverty, surviving on less than USD 2.15 a day. While every country determines its poverty line, the international poverty line of USD 2.15 serves as a standard for countries to measure extreme poverty (USD 1.90/day). Poverty may also be viewed as a state of deprivation that limits access to resources that address basic needs (i.e., food, water, shelter, clothing, healthcare, education), reflecting an “environmental press”. Consequently, individuals having the necessary resources to meet their basic needs reflect a “goodness of fit”, and for this entry, such individuals function as a reference group.
Globally, children represent nearly half of the individuals struggling to survive on less than USD 2.15 a day [3]. Around the world, roughly 1 billion children are “multidimensionally poor”, indicating they lack basic necessities such as nutritious food, clean drinking water, and basic services such as transportation, housing, communication, and health systems [3]. Children experiencing environmental adversity (e.g., living in impoverished neighborhoods) have been found to experience high rates of chronic stress and chronic physical health concerns, potentially impacting future trajectories [4][5][6]. Knowledge of the factors influencing the early development of chronic health conditions provides opportunities for early interventions that could reduce adverse health and social outcomes for the global society.
McEwen and Stellar coined the term “allostatic load” to explain the poorer health outcomes experienced by marginalized groups as a result of the chronic stress resulting from experiences with racism and discrimination [7]. Extant research has identified racism and discrimination as factors in the development of chronic health concerns such as cardiovascular disease (CVD, diabetes, high cholesterol, hypertension, and cancer [4][5][7][8]). Globally, the highest rates of poverty and chronic health conditions appear to be associated with racial and ethnic groups [5][7][8]. Geronimous et al. [5] reported that the stress-influenced health burden experienced by Black/AA persons was equivalent to the wear and tear of a White person 10 years older. Geronimous proffered the term “weathering” to explain the cumulative effect of repeated exposure to social and economic adversity. Section 1.3 provides a more detailed discussion of the relationship between poverty, stress, allostasis, and chronic health concerns.
While individual countries may utilize different monetary amounts to identify poverty, the health burden for those in poverty is comparable at the individual level. Poverty exacerbates risks for marginalized groups to experience discrimination based on a number of intersecting identities, particularly as it relates to healthcare [9][10]. Healthcare inequities are deeply embedded in the healthcare system, presenting as inequality in the diagnosis, management, and treatment of the health conditions experienced by marginalized groups [11]. In some developing and industrialized nations, access to quality medical care remains a problem due to practitioner attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors [12][13]. Although poverty functions as an important social determinant of health disparities, racialized groups, historically, have been the recipients of inequitable healthcare treatment, independent of income status [5][8][10][11] This entry examines the health outcomes that occur when environmental challenges exceed an individual’s ability to cope.

References

  1. NIMH—National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities. Minority Health and Health Disparities: Definitions. Available online: https://www.nimhd.nih.gov/resources/understanding-health-disparities/minority-health-and-health-disparities-definitions.html (accessed on 16 September 2024).
  2. World Bank Group. Understanding Poverty. Available online: https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/poverty/overview (accessed on 15 September 2024).
  3. UNICEF. Child Poverty. Available online: https://www.unicef.org/social-policy/child-poverty (accessed on 16 September 2024).
  4. Blair, C.; Raver, C.; Granger, D.; Mills-Koonce, R.; Hibel, L. Allostasis and Allostatic Load in the Context of Poverty in Early Childhood Development. Psychopathology 2011, 23, 845–857.
  5. Geronimus, A.T.; Hicken, M.; Keene, D.; Bound, J. Weathering and age patterns of allostatic load scores among blacks and whites in the US. Am. J. Public Health 2006, 96, 826–833.
  6. Spears, D.E. Economic decision-making in poverty depletes behavioral control. BE J. Econ. Anal. Poverty 2011, 11, 72.
  7. Guidi, J.; Lucente, M.; Sonino, N.; Fava, G.A. Allostatic load and its impact on health: A systematic review. Psychother. Psychosom. 2020, 90, 11–27.
  8. McEwen, B.S.; Stellar, E. Stress and the individual: Mechanisms leading to disease. Arch. Intern. Med. 1993, 153, 2093–2101.
  9. Brown, C.C.; Marshall, A.R.; Snyder, C.R.; Cueva, K.L.; Pytel, C.C.; Jackson, S.Y.; Golden, S.H.; Campelia, G.D.; Horne, D.J.; Doll, K.M.; et al. Perspectives about racism and patient-clinician communication among Black adults with serious illness. JAMA Netw. Open 2023, 6, e2321746.
  10. Hamed, S.; Bradby, H.; Ahlberg, B.M.; Thapar-Bjorkert, S. Racism in healthcare: A scoping review. BMC Public Health 2022, 22, 988.
  11. Tong, M.; Artiga, S. Use of Race in Clinical Diagnosis and Decision Making: Overview and Implications. Issue Brief. KFF. 9 December 2021. Available online: https://www.kff.org/racial-equity-and-health-policy/issue-brief/use-of-race-in-clinical-diagnosis-and-decision-making-overview-and-implications/ (accessed on 6 October 2024).
  12. NIH. The Current State of Global Health Care Quality in Crossing the Global Quality Chasm: Improving Health Care Worldwide; National Academies Press: Washington, DC, USA, 2018. Available online: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK535654/ (accessed on 6 October 2024).
  13. Schoenthaler, A.; Williams, N. Looking beneath the surface: Racial bias in the treatment and management of pain. JAMA Netw. Open 2022, 5, e2216281.
More
© Text is available under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy.
Upload a video for this entry
Information
Subjects: Behavioral Sciences
Contributors MDPI registered users' name will be linked to their SciProfiles pages. To register with us, please refer to https://encyclopedia.pub/register : Val Livingston , Breshell Jackson-Nevels ,
Erica Brown-Meredith
,
Alexis Campbell
, Brandon D. Mitchell ,
Candace Riddley
,
Alicia O. Tetteh
, Velur Vedvikash Reddy ,
Aquila Williams
View Times: 532
Online Date: 07 Feb 2025
Table of Contents
    Notice
    You are not a member of the advisory board for this topic. If you want to update advisory board member profile, please contact office@encyclopedia.pub.
    OK
    Confirm
    Only members of the Encyclopedia advisory board for this topic are allowed to note entries. Would you like to become an advisory board member of the Encyclopedia?
    Yes
    No
    ${ textCharacter }/${ maxCharacter }
    Submit
    Cancel
    There is no comment~
    ${ textCharacter }/${ maxCharacter }
    Submit
    Cancel
    ${ selectedItem.replyTextCharacter }/${ selectedItem.replyMaxCharacter }
    Submit
    Cancel
    Confirm
    Are you sure to Delete?
    Yes No
    Academic Video Service
    Feedback