Correlations Discovered Between Health Risks and Income, Age

We are all aware that wealth, and the lack of it, would cause poor standard of living, high mortality rate and an increase in health risks. We remember the World Health Organization (WHO) messaging that highlights Africa's health challenges. Income, through the gross national product earned by a country has a direct impact on it's people welfare via the ability to provide basic sanitation, healthcare and nutrition. However, does money matter to health between states in a first world country like the United States?

It seems that money is still a determinant to health in the most advanced economy in the world as we observe a positive correlation between the proportion of people living in poverty and the proportion of people who are lacks healthcare. In plain terms, US States with higher rates of poverty have more people who are not able to access healthcare. The opposite is true where states with higher median household incomes have better access to healthcare.

This relationship between money and healthcare extends to other health risks like tendency to smoke and obesity. The data shows that there is a potential causality between wealth and these factors which are widely accepted health hazards. More studies will need to be conducted to better distinct whether this relationship is a mere correlation or a causation. To illustrate, households belonging to lower socioeconomic groups may tend to smoke more or are obese due to the absence of a healthy social activities like swimming, golfing or going for a weekend retreat with the family to enjoy nature rather than being driven by material deprivation.

Meanwhile, the relationship between age and health risks shows a much larger margin of error. With that caveat, we can still observe that states with younger demographics tend to have lower access to healthcare. This could be explained by the eligibility of adults over 65 years old to Medicare. The older demographic is also less likely to be associated with obesity which is fortunate due to the high cost of care for obese elders. However, this could potentially be a creeping number as there is an upward trend of adults and children being obese in the US. The data also shows a trade-off in health risk for the younger demographics. While the younger population is more inclined to be obese, they are also less likely to smoke.

In conclusion, while Ralph Waldo Emerson tells us that "The first wealth is health", data reveals the symbiotic relationship between health and wealth as without wealth, the health of the American people are at greater risk. This is especially poignant seven months into the worldwide pandemic caused by the spread of COVID-19 and the world is still experiencing it's toll on both human life and economic devastation, that health and wealth do go hand in hand.

Data source: The 2014 ACS 1-year estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau and the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System.