The following is a short article/newspiece in Charity Village Vibes (an email bulletin sent out on Mondays) that comes from the American Journal of Public Health. I thought that it would be of interest to this list. While these findings are not very surprising to most of us - it is an important study to be able to have published and be able to use in our work. It is an 'interesting', and painfully revealing, accompaniment to several messages posted recently on CLICK4HP which have discussed poverty and health. In particular, these messages have included information supplied by several health units' monitoring of 'food baskets' (where low-income families would have a choice of shelter OR healthy food, not both); and also Michael Valpy's recent column in the Globe & Mail, about Mel Hurtig's book "Pay the Rent or Feed the Kids - the Disgrace of Poverty in Canada". That title says a great deal. I would like to revive our discussion about what health promotion practitioners can do, strategies and approaches that we can take, to address poverty and economic determinants of health. We know that there is a direct correlation of income to health, and these studies and messages have shown us that our 'mandated' work in programming is not enough to make any impact in changing the basic situation of people experiencing poverty. So what should we be doing that IS effective? Comments anyone? Alison * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Alison Stirling, health promotion consultant OPC - Prevention Clearinghouse E-Mail: [log in to unmask] Internet: http://www.web.net/~stirling/ 1(800) 263-2846 OR (416) 408-2121 ext 2226 Suite 1900, 180 Dundas St. W. Toronto ON M5G 1Z8. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Poor too busy surviving to worry about disease prevention Writing in the latest issue of the American Journal of Public Health, Canadian researcher Jennifer O'Loughlin concludes that poor people are "more concerned with...day-to-day social and economic living challenges than they [are] about the possibility of developing a chronic disease in the distant future." As a result of these immediate challenges, prevention-oriented public health campaigns are often ineffective in poorer regions. In studying a low-income neighbourhood in Montreal over a five-year period, O'Loughlin and fellow researchers found that participation rates for a Healthy Heart program came in at only two percent and concluded that "benefits [of the program] at the community level were minimal." Researchers also noted that the prevention program may have suffered because of high rates of illiteracy in the area and overtaxed community groups that could not deliver program elements over time.