Upward Socioeconomic Mobility Improves Health

Socioeconomic status and well-being are interwoven. The more financially stable someone is, the better their health outcomes are likely to be. Vice-versa is true as well: people from lower socioeconomic classes are more likely to struggle with poor health and chronic disease, which in turn makes it harder for them and their families to be upwardly mobile.
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Upward Socioeconomic Mobility Improves Health
The ties between a higher socioeconomic status and better physical and mental health have been proven time and time again. It's a complex mix of factors that lead to better health, including improved education on healthy habits and better access to preventative care. In turn, having the time to focus on eating right, reducing stress, and getting exercise gives people an overall better quality of life. Studies have found that a higher income correlates to better overall well-being. Or, as the American Psychological Association puts it: "wealth secures health." That's because having a low income correlates with a lower ability to buy nutritional food, or to have the time or money to exercise. It's also psychological: struggling to make ends meet every month puts a mental strain on people that actually damages their physical health. Research has found that the opposite is true, too: people from a lower socioeconomic class are more likely to self-report poorer health, worse self-to see a lower life expectancy, and to suffer from more chronic conditions than their counterparts from a higher socioeconomic class. Part of these poor health outcomes comes from reduced access to quality preventative care because of cost. People from a higher socieconomic class on the other hand are more likely to seek preventative treatment and to take medicines required to treat chronic illnesses. For instance, someone from a higher socioeconomic class might also suffer from diabetes, but they are more likely to be able to manage it better through diet and insulin injections both because of better education surrounding food and through access to medicines. Preventative care, too, can save someone's life and livelihood. For instance, a person with financial stability might have the health insurance and money to schedule annual or bi-annual screenings for skin cancer. Perhaps they might catch cancerous cells early and be able to have them removed immediately. Someone without access to preventative care, however, might end up developing skin cancer having to spend thousands of dollars on cancer treatments. These costly treatments might send their family into debt; lost work due to appointments could mean lost income. And catching cancer too late could potentially cost them their life. A whole host of factors can affect someone's socioeconomic class and their resulting health, from their gender and sexual orientation, to their ethnicity. "We've often chosen to focus on either ethnicity or class rather than on the interaction between the two," said Hector F. Myers, PhD, a professor of psychology at the University of California at Los Angeles. "We've become a lot more sophisticated in our thinking recently."
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Better access to medicine and stress reduction improves people's lives greatly.
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Sources
The Influence Of Income On Health: Views Of An Epidemiologist, Health Affairs, Michael Marmot, March/April 2002
Wealth secures health
How Socioeconomic Status Affects Patient Perceptions of Health Care: A Qualitative Study
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