Scientists such as Edith Chen, Ph.D, have found evidence that the very experience of poverty and the stress it induces might itself be an asthma “trigger.” Dr. Chen co-founded the Psychobiological Determinants of Health Lab at the University of British Columbia to better understand the pathways by which class gets under the skin and influences our heath.  Rather than focus on how material pollutants, like soot, disrupt our physiology Chen and her colleagues are investigating how ‘social pollutants’ – that is, toxic social environments can become embedded in our bodies and increase susceptibility to disease. 

How does socioeconomic status get under the skin? This book summarizes the decade of research by the MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Socioeconomic Status and Health “exploring the pathways and mechanisms that contribute to the gradient relationship between socioeconomic status and health.”

PDFs of each article are available online.  You may also purchase a complete copy of the journal.

This first-ever policy statement on health and place from the AAP argues that pediatricians working with community partners should participate in establishing communities designed for activity and health.

The Early Years Study by Margaret McCain and Fraser Mustard (1999) had an electrifying effect on scientists working in the area of early child development. In this second edition of the Early Years Study the authors review the scientific advances that have been made in the past eight years in developmental neuroscience, and the organizational advances that have been in the implementation of this knowledge. We are still a long way, however, from the sorts of universally accessible high quality programs that are needed. As important as it is to continue our scientific investigations, the most important challenge that we face today is to muster the political will and effort necessary to translate what we already know about early brain development into action.

This report summarizes the research on childhood stress and its implications for adult health and well-being. Of particular interest is the stress caused by child abuse, neglect, and repeated exposure to intimate partner violence (IPV). This publication provides violence prevention practitioners with ideas about how to incorporate information on childhood stress into their work.

Between 1966 and 1980, socioeconomic inequities in premature mortality and infant death shrank, absolutely and relatively, especially for US populations of color. However, starting in 1980, the relative gaps widened and the absolute gaps remained unchanged.

This edition of the InBrief series explains why a vital and productive society with a prosperous and sustainable future is built on a foundation of healthy child development. This video summarizes findings from The Foundations of Lifelong Health Are Built in Early Childhood, a report co-authored by the National Scientific Council on the Developing Child and the National Forum on Early Childhood Policy and Programs.

This article examines the state of Canadian children's health through scores on a set of key health indicators. National and provincial infant mortality rates show little recent improvement, and in the case of low birth weight rates, a worsening trend is evident. These health indicators are strongly related to income, and studies documenting these associations are reviewed. Compared with other wealthy nations, Canada performs poorly with regard to infant mortality rates and somewhat less so for low birth weight rates. For other health indicators and measures of the quality of the social determinants of children's health (such as poverty) and children's well-being, Canada's performance suggests that there are numerous areas for improvement.

This article provides models that explain how exposures to differing quality living circumstances result in health inequalities among children. Living circumstances - the social determinants of health - operate through a variety of mechanisms to shape children's health and cognitive, emotional and social development. In addition to specifying the mechanisms that mediate the relationship between living circumstances and health outcomes, the article also identifies some of the economic and political factors that shape the quality of the living circumstances to which Canadian children are exposed.

The health of Canada’s children does not compare well with other wealthy industrialized nations. Significant inequalities in health exist among Canadian children, and many of these inequalities are due to variations in Canadian children’s life circumstances – the social determinants of health. This article describes the social determinants of children’s health and explains how the quality of these social determinants is shaped, in large part, by public policy decisions. Policy directions that would improve the quality of the social determinants of children’s health are presented and barriers to their implementation are considered.

Canadian children’s health is influenced, in large part, by the living circumstances that they experience. These living circumstances – also known as the social determinants of health – are shaped by public policy decisions made by governmental authorities. While public policy should be focused on providing all Canadian  children with the living circumstances necessary for health, it appears that Canada is far from achieving this goal. Instead, there are programs directed at Canada’s most severely disadvantaged families and children. While vital, these programs appear to achieve less than that which would be achieved if governmental action was designed to strengthen the social determinants of health for all children. Considering the governmental actions that would achieve this goal are well known – with rather little evidence of policy implementation – it is essential to understand the processes by which public policy is made. An important physician role – in addition to providing responsive health care services – is to become forceful advocates for public policy in the service of health. It is in the latter sphere that physician involvement may yield the strongest benefits for promoting children’s health.

The focus of this chapter will be an examination of the relationship between traumatic stress in childhood and the leading causes of morbidity, mortality, and disability in the United States: cardiovascular disease, chronic lung disease, chronic liver disease, depression and other forms of mental illness, obesity, smoking, and alcohol and drug abuse.  To do this, the authors will draw on their experience with the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study, a major American epidemiological study providing retrospective and prospective analysis in over 17,000 individuals of the effect of traumatic experiences during the first eighteen years of life on adolescent and adult medical and psychiatric disease, sexual behavior, healthcare costs, and life expectancy.4

The Work, Family, and Equity Index has been developed to measure governmental performance around the world in meeting the needs of working families in general and and low- and middle-income working families in particular. The policies used to comprise the index have achieved widespread recognition based on the weight of the research evidence or consensus in global policy and international agreements.

In Bayview-Hunters Point, the stress created by environmental problems, racism, poverty and crime may explain why so many babies die young. Infant mortality is twice as high here as in the rest of San Francisco.

Neonatologists James Collins and Richard David specialize in the care of infants born too soon or too small. Their research on differences in birth outcomes between African American and white American women points to a provocative idea: the cumulative stress of racism is taking a toll on African American families even before they are born.

According to a new study in Molecular Psychiatry, violence leaves long-term scars on children's bodies, altering their DNA and causing changes that are equivalent to seven to 10 years of premature aging. Scientists measured this cellular aging by studying the ends of children's chromosomes, called telomeres.

This issue brief focuses on three important and inter-related aspects of residential housing and their links to health: the physical conditions within homes; conditions in the neighborhoods surrounding homes; and housing affordability, which not only shapes home and neighborhood conditions but also affects the overall ability of families to make healthy choices.

There is overwhelming evidence that social factors have profound influences on health. Children are particularly sensitive to social determinants, especially in the early years. Mounting an effective response to social determinants will involve both direct social policy initiatives designed to eliminate poverty and inequality, and indirect approaches focused on disrupting pathways between social risks and poor health outcomes. To be effective, these indirect strategies will require nothing short of a transformation of existing child health systems. Parents and professionals must work together from the ground up, raising public awareness about social determinants of health and implementing cross-sector place-based initiatives designed to promote positive health in childhood.

Learn more about YES! - the after-school youth anti-violence program featured in "Place Matters."