Europe UK (Commonwealth Union) – The association between poverty and ill health together with poor academic performance has long been observed universally. The lack of opportunities, that is often associated with poor motivation can impact an individual’s educational opportunities. The association between poverty ill health is often linked to the purchasing of cheaper less healthy foods that often lead to further negative consequences in the long term.
A new report has revealed that generation Z children born into the 5th of families in the UK are facing the most poverty having a 12 times higher likelihood of experiencing a raft of poor health and educational outcomes at 17 years old when contrasted to peers with higher affluence.
The report that utilized data from the Millennium Cohort Study, that was a major study of over 15,000 children born after the new millennium (September 2000 to January 2002) who are currently in the early 20s age range.
The study involved the gathering of data on 5 adverse health and social outcomes in adolescents who were 17 years old, which have been known to restrict life chances, which included educational achievement, smoking, poor health, obesity as well as psychological distress.
The study further indicated that children who were disadvantaged the most between 0-5 years old had a 4.5 times higher chance in performing worse at school at 17 years old when contrasted with individuals in the highest income group. And they had a 3.5 times higher chance of starting smoking.
Professor Eric Brunner of the UCL Institute of Epidemiology and Health says “Almost a third of children in the UK lived below the poverty line in 2019-20, as housing costs and childhood poverty continued to rise. The consequences in relation to future health inequalities (in diabetes, heart attack, cancer, and multimorbidity) are evident in stark terms in the experience of the Millennium Cohort.”
