Many studies have found that financial stability plays an important role in a person's lifestyle. It is a determining factor in what a person eats, how well and how often he/she works out and indulges in other habits like smoking and alcohol consumption. A new study by researchers from the Zilber School of Public Health at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee confirmed these findings.
The study highlighted that people who feel financially insecure are more likely to indulge in poor health behavior.
For the study, researchers examined data from a 2005-2009 survey of 828 adult residents who lived in three Boston-area cities. All influencing factors such as age, race/ethnicity, gender, education, country of birth, language spoken and perceived financial hardships were taken into consideration. Participants were asked about how cash-strapped they felt at the end of each month. Researchers found that those who reported being short of money at the end of the month were more likely to eat poorly and smoke more compared to those who reported having money left at the end of the month.
It was also observed that men were significantly more likely to report less healthy eating and more total sitting than women and were twice as likely to report current smoking.
The researchers of this study pointed out that socioeconomic status cannot be held as the sole cause of disparity between people who eat healthy and those that don't. They point out that people's health choices strongly reflect the environments in which they "live, work and pray."
"Rather than calling a patient who hasn't followed advice to improve health habits noncompliant, really helping him would require making suggestions that account for the resources available in his environment," the study authors said in a press statement. "These findings highlight the need for health promotion leaders to consider diverse predictors of health behaviors, she emphasized, noting that financial hardship as a predictor is more robust than just socioeconomic status (income or education) and supports the notion that economic policy is health policy."
The study was published online in the American Journal of Health Promotion.
