Yoo Joan P, Slack Kristen S, Holl Jane L
School of Social Work, University of North Carolina, 325 Pittsboro St, CB#3550, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3550, USA.
Am J Public Health. 2009 May;99(5):829-36. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2007.119776. Epub 2008 Aug 13.
We examined the relationship between material hardship reported by low-income caregivers and caregivers' assessments of their children's overall health.
We used logistic regression techniques to analyze data from 1073 children aged 5 through 11 years whose caregivers participated in multiple waves of the Illinois Families Study.
Caregivers' reports of food hardship were strongly associated with their assessments of their children's health. Other sources of self-reported material hardship were also associated with caregivers' assessments of their children's health, but the effects disappeared when we controlled for caregiver physical health status and mental health status. Proximal measures of material hardship better explained low-income children's health than traditional socioeconomic measures. There were no statistically significant cumulative effects of material hardships above and beyond individual hardship effects.
Our findings highlight the importance of developing and supporting programs and policies that ensure access to better-quality food, higher quantities of food, and better living conditions for low-income children, as well as health promotion and prevention efforts targeted toward their primary caregivers as ways to reduce health disparities for this population.
我们研究了低收入照料者报告的物质困难与照料者对其子女总体健康状况评估之间的关系。
我们使用逻辑回归技术分析了1073名5至11岁儿童的数据，这些儿童的照料者参与了多轮伊利诺伊家庭研究。
照料者报告的食物困难与其对子女健康状况的评估密切相关。自我报告的其他物质困难来源也与照料者对子女健康状况的评估有关，但在我们控制了照料者的身体健康状况和心理健康状况后，这些影响消失了。与传统的社会经济指标相比，物质困难的近端指标能更好地解释低收入儿童的健康状况。物质困难的累积效应在个体困难效应之外没有统计学上的显著差异。
我们的研究结果强调了制定和支持相关项目及政策的重要性，这些项目和政策应确保低收入儿童能够获得质量更高、数量更多的食物以及更好的生活条件，同时还应针对其主要照料者开展健康促进和预防工作，以此作为减少该人群健康差距的途径。
