Poverty dynamics and child health: Findings from Taiwan Birth Cohort Study

Background. Poverty is not a static status. There are growing concerns about effects of poverty dynamics on health, but few studies examined how poverty dynamics affects the health of children. We aim to explore the relationship between different types of poverty and children’s health.

Methods. Data for the analysis came from the Taiwan Birth Cohort Study with a nationally representative sample of 18,845 children who completed the first (6-month) to fourth waves (5-year) of interview surveys. Poverty was defined as parental income below US$1,000 per month. The health of Children at age 5 was rated by their mothers and divided into two groups: poor and non-poor. Multivariate logistic regression was used to examine the effect of different types of poverty on children’s health, adjusting for child sex, family and parental characteristics.

Results. Children were grouped into five groups according to family poverty history: persistent poverty (3.2%), moving into poverty (7.1%), recurrent poverty (7.9%), leaving poverty (5.2%), and never poverty (74.9%). Children born and growing in poverty families were more likely to have poor health than those who were of never poverty group. Specifically, the impact of persistent poverty on children’s health was the most detrimental (OR=2.25; 95% CI: 1.50, 3.38). We also found that the leaving poverty group (OR=1.72; 95% CI: 1.22, 2.43) were more likely to have poorer health than the moving into poverty group (OR=1.57; 95% CI: 1.15, 2.14), and the recurrent poverty group was similar to the moving into poverty group (OR=1.54; 95% CI: 1.14, 2.09).

Conclusions. Children who are born poor have worse health, particularly for those who have grown in persistent-poverty families.