Ruby Mendenhall, Ph.D., M.P.P., is an Assistant Professor of Sociology and African American Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Assistant Dean, Diversity and Democratization of Health Innovation at Carle Illinois College of Medicine.
J Law Med Ethics. 2018 Sep;46(3):644-650. doi: 10.1177/1073110518804218.
Scholars are beginning to use the concept medicalization of poverty to theorize how the United States spends large amounts of money on illnesses related to poverty but invests much less in preventing these illnesses and the conditions that create them (e.g., economic insecurity, housing instability, continuous exposure to violence, and racism). This study examines the connection between poverty, disease burden and health-related costs through the in-depth interviews of 86 Black mothers living in neighborhoods with high levels of violence on the South Side of Chicago. The rippling costs of poverty and violence include 56 percent of the mothers reporting post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms and 48 percent reporting mild to severe depressive symptoms. Mothers also report poor housing quality such as "toxic mold." The physical costs include reports of back pains, stomach aches, hair falling out, panic attacks, hands shaking, insomnia (sometimes for two days), fainting from exhaustion and lack of sexual desire, and children with asthma and osteomyelitis reportedly from the exposure to mold. Transformative solutions are explored that build upon the cultural resources of Black mothers (e.g., women-centered networks, spirituality and collective-cooperatives) and engage policy levers (e.g., Earned Income Tax Credit and Tax Increment Financing).
学者们开始使用贫困医学化的概念来理论化美国如何在与贫困相关的疾病上花费大量资金，但在预防这些疾病和造成这些疾病的条件（例如经济不安全、住房不稳定、持续暴露于暴力和种族主义）方面的投资却少得多。本研究通过对 86 名居住在芝加哥南部暴力高发地区的黑人母亲进行深入访谈，考察了贫困、疾病负担和与健康相关的成本之间的联系。贫困和暴力的连锁成本包括 56%的母亲报告创伤后应激障碍症状，48%报告轻度至重度抑郁症状。母亲们还报告了住房质量差，如“有毒霉菌”。身体成本包括背痛、胃痛、脱发、惊恐发作、手颤抖、失眠（有时持续两天）、因疲劳和缺乏性欲而晕倒，以及据称因接触霉菌而患有哮喘和骨髓炎的儿童。本研究探讨了一些变革性的解决方案，这些解决方案建立在黑人母亲的文化资源（例如以妇女为中心的网络、精神性和集体合作社）的基础上，并利用政策杠杆（例如，所得税抵免和税收增量融资）。
