HLTB41H3 Chapter Notes - Chapter 3: Food Security, Progressive Tax
Chapter 1 Introduction and Chapter 3 Income and Income Distribution
Chapter 3: Income and Income Distribution
Why Is It Important?
• Income is the most important SDOH = shapes overall living conditions, affects
psychological functioning and influences health-related behavior such as quality of diet,
extent of physical activity, tobacco use, and excessive alcohol use
• In Canada, income determines food security, housing, and other basic pre-req of health
• The relationship between income and health can be studied in 2 different levels
1. Observe how health is related to the actual income that an individual or family
receives
2. We can study how income is distributed across the pop and how this distribution
is related to the health of the pop
▪ More equal income distribution has proven to be one of the best
predictors of better overall health of a society
• In Canada, public education until grade 12, necessary medically procedures, and
libraries are funded by general revenues, but childcare, housing, post-secondary
education, recreational opportunities, and resources for retirement must be bought and
paid for by individuals
o But in many wealthy developed nations these services are provided as citizen
rights
• Low income = deprivation (social and material)
o The greater deprivation, the less likely individuals and families are able to afford
the basic prereq of health such as food, clothing, and housing
o Deprivation also contributed to social exclusion by making it harder to
participated in cultural, educational, and recreational activities
o Social exclusion affects one health and lessens the abilities to live a fulfilling day-
to-day life
• Researchers have also found that men in the wealthiest 20% of neighborhood in Canada
live on average more than 4 years longer than men in the poorest 20% of neighborhood
o Deprived communities = 28% more higher
• The suicide rates in the lowest income communities were found to be almost twice
those seen in the wealthiest communities
• OECD = Canada as being 1 of 2 wealthy developed nations (among 30) showing the
greatest increases in income inequality and poverty from the 1990 to the mid 2000,
Now, is among the OECD nations with high income inequality
o 1985 to 2005, the bottom 60% of Canadians families’ experiences and actual
decline in market incomes in constant dollars while the top 20% of Canadians
families did very well
• Increase income inequality has also led to a hollowing out of the middle class in Canada
with increase from 1980-2005 (poor or very rich)
• Wealth is probably a better indicator of long-term health outcomes as it is a better
measure of financial security than income
Policy Implications
• There is an emerging consensus that income inequality is a key health policy issue that
