Poverty is one of the most powerful determinants of health — not because of individual choices but because it shapes every condition that health depends on: food security, housing quality, environmental safety, occupational hazard, stress load, access to care, and time for health-promoting behaviors. The health gradient across income levels is not a cliff between poverty and wealth but a continuous staircase — each step up in income is associated with measurably better health outcomes — which makes health inequality a structural issue rather than a medical one. Understanding the body in poverty means understanding that the same disease looks different in different economic contexts, and that much of what we call individual health is in fact social policy.
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