| ||||||
Why Poor Kids May Make Sicker Adults |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
From EurekAlert! - Breaking News: Now, Cornell University researchers have identified several key mechanisms in 13-year-olds that may help explain how low socio-economic status takes its toll on health. In the first longitudinal study on the physiological effects of poverty in young children, the Cornell researchers report that the longer 13-year-olds have lived in poverty, the less efficient their bodies become in handling environmental demands. "We think that these mechanisms may be related to the fact that children who grow up in poverty have a steeper life trajectory of premature health problems than other children, regardless of their socio-economic status in adulthood," said Gary Evans, the Elizabeth Lee Vincent Professor of Human Ecology and professor of human development and of design and environmental analysis in Cornell's College of Human Ecology. "These muted responses of stress regulatory mechanisms, which are part of the cardiovascular system, not only compromise the ability of the adolescents' bodies to respond to such stressors as noise, poor housing and family turmoil but also indicate they are suffering from more stress-induced physiological strain on their organs and tissues than other young people," said Evans. The researchers assessed the neuroendocrine and cardiovascular markers of stress regulatory systems by measuring overnight levels of a stress hormone (cortisol) and blood pressure reactivity and recovery after an acute stressor (being asked unexpectedly to do mental math problems) in 217 low- and middle-income white adolescents -- at age 9 and then again at age 13 -- in rural areas of upstate New York. They assessed cumulative physical and social risk exposure by measuring crowding, noise and housing quality in conjunction with maternal and youth reports of family turmoil, youth separation from family and exposure to violence.
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
