Citation

Brosco JP, Payne S. Pediatrics 2023; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2023, American Academy of Pediatrics)

DOI

10.1542/peds.2022-060498

PMID

36946127

Abstract

Death is a social disease; the numbers prove it. For at least 200 years, scholars have been able to demonstrate what seems intuitive: social and economic circumstances are significant determinants of health. In the early 1800s, French physician Louis-Rene Villerme counted more deaths from cholera for people living in less expensive boarding houses compared with people living in more expensive ones.1 Starting in 1914, the US Children's Bureau, precursor to today's Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB), published studies linking the infant mortality rate to a variety of living conditions, including poverty, race, and immigrant status.2 In this issue of Pediatrics, Slopen et al3 used sophisticated techniques across a nationally representative sample of more than 1 million children to confirm 2 centuries of research: the conditions where you live matter, and not just for child deaths, but for family members as well.

What do we learn...

Language: en