This would be a great time to call the Globe and Mail on its ongoing
NEGLECT of the role that societal factors such as income and poverty
play in disease and illness among Canadians.  Appropriate emails are below!

The Toronto Star coverage of this story is at:

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_PrintFriendly&c=Article&cid=1026143890404


Dear Editor of the Toronto Globe and Mail:

In my lectures to health policy and management students
I point out the media neglect of the role income and other
societal factors play in the incidence of disease among
Canadians.  I suggest this may be due to lack of
understanding or neglect on the party of reporters, or
more insidiously, ideological filtering of content by editors
that is consistent with owners and publishers



' political views.
How else can we explain the Globe and Mail's (Canada's
National Newspaper) failure to cover a major release by
Statistics Canada  (Regional Socio-economic Context and
Health, 2000/01, August 1, 2002) that found that low income
people were over five times more likely to report poor or fair
health than those in the wealthiest category? And that these
income effects remained even after controlling for a bunch
of lifestyle behaviours.  Could it be that findings that income
is the prime predictor of the incidence of disease and illness
and that it swamps the effects of "lifestyle' factors is
 inconsistent with the political and ideological views of those
at the top of the Globe and Mail hierarchy?

Dennis Raphael, PhD
Associate Professor
Health Policy and Management
York University

cc: Carolyn Abraham Medical Reporter  cabraham@globeandmail,ca
      Andre Picard, Public Health Reporter [log in to unmask]
      Edward Greenspon, Editor    [log in to unmask]
      Stephen Strauss, Science Editor   [log in to unmask]