Poverty Status, Health Behaviours and Health: Implications for Social Assistance and Health Care Policy

Abstract

This study investigated the relationships among poverty status, health behaviours, and the health of 130 Albertans living in poor families. For the purposes of this study, poverty status indicated whether poor families were receiving social assistance along with comprehensive health care benefits or whether they were working poor without comprehensive health care benefits. Findings from seven separate path analyses indicate that poverty status was differentially related to the health of participants. Specifically, working poor respondents were found to be generally healthier than their social assistance counterparts except in those instances in which the working poor were prevented from filling needed prescriptions because they lacked the economic resources to do so. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications of these findings for social assistance and health care policies.