Volume 2 – From Birth to 29 Months

Number 3 – Socioeconomic Conditions and Health

After having described the shifts in the principal health problems in children from birth to 29 months, the authors of the first section study the links between changes in family poverty (insufficient income) and health problems of their 29-montholds, controlling for the mother's age and level of education. We find that chronic poverty is associated with a greater risk of presenting acute health problems and of having asthma attacks. Moreover, early poverty is linked to a greater risk of asthma attacks at 29 months. On the other hand, there is no link between either temporary poverty or current poverty
and a child's health.

In the second section, the authors probe the influence of the family's social position on the health of very young children at the ages of 5, 17 and 29 months in order to identify protective factors that will allow for the development of positive avenues for preventive intervention. The results indicate that for a child born in Québec in the late 1990s, living since birth in a family at the bottom of the social ladder increases the probability that he or she will be in less than very good health. Nevertheless, the influence of social position on the health of young children seems to dissipate in the presence of protective factors.