[homeles_ot-l] PROVEN - Health inequality is killing us! FW: [hhno-on] WI backgrounder:

[Lynne Browne]

FYI… with thanks to Michael Shapcott. 

Three reports on health and poverty: from the  World Health Organization’s
Social Determinants of Health Commission, from Dr. David Butler-Jones,
Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer and one from Toronto Public Health. 

Lynne Browne

Coordinator, Alliance to End Homelessness (ATEH)
147 Besserer Street, Ottawa, ON K1N 6A7 
HYPERLINK "mailto:lbrowne at ysb.on.ca"lbrowne at ysb.on.ca,  613-241-7913 ext 205

www.endhomelessnessottawa.ca  

 

Subject: [hhno-on] WI backgrounder: PROVEN - Health inequality is killing
us!

 

The poorest men in Toronto are dying at a mortality rate that is a
staggering 54% higher than the richest men in our city. Women are faring
only slightly better – the difference in the mortality rate between poor
women and rich women is 34%.

 

The mortality rate (a leading statistical indicator of premature death) is
only one of more than two dozen health indicators set out in detail in a new
report from Toronto Public Health called “HYPERLINK
"http://www.toronto.ca/health/map/inequalities.htm"The Unequal City: Income
and Health Inequalities in Toronto, 2008” (October 22, 2008). The Toronto
report comes on the heels of major research reports from the Canadian Public
Health Officer and the World Health Organization that document the same
trend on the national and the global scale.

 

Poverty is driving the health crisis set out in the Toronto report. Deep and
persistent poverty in Canada’s richest city is leading directly to increased
sickness and to early death. But it’s not just the poorest of the poor who
are suffering (although they are paying the heaviest burden). 

 

“The relationship between income and health in Toronto is not just about the
extremes of wealth and poverty,” according to Toronto Public Health. “As the
data in this report show, for most indicators there is a continuous gradient
of health in relation to income – health status improves through each income
increment. Toronto residents who live in high income areas are healthier
than those living in middle income areas, and those who live in middle
income areas are healthier than those living in low income areas. This means
that health inequalities affect all Torontonians.”

 

“We cannot rate our collective health and well-being by looking only at
those who are healthiest,” said Dr. David Butler-Jones, Canada’s Chief
Public Health Officer, in the introduction to his “HYPERLINK
"http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/publicat/2008/chpo-aspc/index-eng.php"Report on
the State of Public Health in Canada” (June 18, 2008). “In short, health
inequalities are fundamentally societal inequalities that we can overcome
through public policy, and individual and collective action. Just as there
is no sector of society that is untouched by health inequalities, there is
no person or organization that cannot make a positive contribution to their
resolution.”

 

“Social justice is a matter of life and death,” writes the World Health
Organization’s Social Determinants of Health Commission in their report
“HYPERLINK "http://www.who.int/social_determinants/final_report/en/"Closing
the Gap in a Generation” (August 28, 20008). “Inequities in health,
avoidable health inequalities, arise because of circumstances in which
people grow, life, work and age, and the systems put in place to deal with
illness. The conditions in which people live and die are, in turn, shaped by
political, social and economic forces.”

 

Inevitably, there may be some who will say that poorer people are the
authors of their own misfortune, arguing that they suffer an overwhelming
weight of poor health and premature death because they choose to live
unhealthy lives. For those inclined to blame the poor for their poor health,
consider this:

 

*         there is a 40% increase in low-birth weight babies among the
poorest Torontonians versus the richest. Toronto Public Health estimates
that if poor and middle-income people enjoyed the same health as the richest
people, then there would be about 1,300 fewer low-birth weight babies
annually (that’s 1,300 newborns who would start their lives with an equal
health advantage).

 

-          Michael

***

 

Michael Shapcott

Director of Community Engagement

The Wellesley Institute

45 Charles Street East, Toronto, ON, Canada, M4Y 1S2

Telephone - 416-972-1010, x231

Facsimile - 416-921-7228

Mobile - 416-605-8316

HYPERLINK "http://www.wellesleyinstitute.com"www.wellesleyinstitute.com


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