With enough money and resources, we can access other building blocks of health like quality housing. Without them, debt and poverty can harm our mental and physical health.<\/p>\n
A reliable and adequate income enables us to access other building blocks of health like housing and transport, and essentials such as food and heating. Alongside our income, having resources, such as savings or assets like property, provide a buffer against unexpected shocks like illness or losing a job.<\/p>\n
Together, our income and resources influence and can enhance our health. This includes the quality and security of our home, the neighbourhoods we can afford to live in, our education and job opportunities. Having greater financial resources also allows us to pay for goods and experiences, such as recreational and social activities, that can improve our physical and mental health.<\/p>\n
Living without an adequate or reliable income or resources greatly restricts our options and opportunities. And it affects all the other\u00a0building blocks of a healthy life<\/a>. It can cause chronic stress, reduce our control over our circumstances, undermine our mental health, and have a knock-on effect on physical health. When we can\u2019t reliably meet our needs or those of our families, the resulting worry, anxiety and constrained choices can have profound and lasting impacts.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Wherever we are on the income distribution, our health is likely to be better as our level of income rises. Our income determines how well we can meet our essential needs and living costs, such as heating our homes or having enough nutritious food to eat. Having a higher income can provide extra money to support other non-essential\u00a0building blocks of health<\/a>, such as improving the quality of our homes and taking part in social activities.<\/p>\n The\u00a0reliability and stability of our income over the long term<\/a>\u00a0matters for our health too. When we feel our income is stable or we have less uncertainty over our finances, we are more likely to have reduced anxiety, as\u00a0well as to adopt healthy habits<\/a>.<\/p>\n The relationship between income and health can be two-way. Having a lower income means more sources of stress that can both harm our health and restrict us from improving it. And poor health can limit our opportunities for good and stable employment, or result in loss of work, which both affect our income.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The relationship between debt and health is two-way. Problem debt \u2013 when our debts risk becoming unmanageable \u2013 can mean we struggle to make repayments, borrow more money or risk not affording essentials. This can harm our physical and mental health by causing stress and reducing opportunities to improve our health. Poor health can be a trigger for problem debt, for example if it leads to loss of work or a reduction in our income.<\/p>\n Financial strain and hardship increase our risk of mental and physical health problems. Research shows that people in financial hardship are at greater risk of mental health problems, such as\u00a0anxiety, stress and depression<\/u><\/a>.<\/p>\n Financial strain can have an\u202fimpact on our physical health. This can be directly through conditions such as\u00a0hypertension<\/u><\/a>, which is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease, and\u00a0back pain<\/u><\/a>, which can affect our quality of life and our ability to work, or indirectly through its\u00a0effect on our behaviours<\/u><\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Poverty \u2013 where our resources are not enough to meet our minimum needs \u2013 affects our health in several ways, which often overlap. Being unable to afford a decent standard of living might mean:<\/p>\n All these factors affect our health and wellbeing, either directly, for example through increased respiratory problems or by causing chronic stress that in turn has an impact on our physical and mental health. A high\u00a0cost of living and the affordability of housing and food<\/a>\u00a0puts greater pressure on household budgets and affects people\u2019s health.<\/p>\n Poverty is associated with worse health throughout our lives. In childhood,\u202fit is linked to\u00a0worse infant mortality, low birth weight, obesity, asthma and tooth decay<\/a>. In adulthood, poverty is linked to diabetes, cardiovascular disease and premature mortality \u2013 often as a result of a\u00a0higher risk of deaths due to drugs, alcohol and suicide.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>How does income affect health?<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n
What is the impact of debt and financial strain on health?<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n
How does poverty affect health?<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n
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