Health begins in the mother before conception.
The pathway to good health is far more challenging and complicated than simply regular exercise, eating the right foods, and managing stress. Here are some items to both inform and consider regarding the foundation of health and the complex integrated factors that influence wellness and healthy living.
Early Childhood and Adolescent Development
Health begins in the mother before conception (Stephenson et al., 2018); therefore women are foundational to health including their body and mental health, lifestyle, and living conditions. After conception, support and lifestyle during the term of the pregnancy is the next step of health.
In a child's early years, 90% of their brain develops by age 5 learning words and speech and developing cognitive thinking (Brown & Jernigan, 2012). This early brain development has a direct impact on a child’s ability to perform and succeed in school and life. The quality of a child’s early life experiences – positive or negative – helps determine their thinking, behavior, and interactions, as well as self-image and self-worth.
Since early childhood development helps set the foundation of health and success in life, it requires significant investment and support to ensure universal access and affordability while providing age-appropriate learning, experiences, and interactions in a caring and nurturing environment. The challenges here are significant such as local availability, hours, transportation, and cost. However, the lifetime cost of missed employment opportunities, social dependency, and cost of care far exceeds the investment (Heckman et al., 2009).
Research shows a gap in cognitive, social, behavioral, and health outcomes between children from lower income families and higher income families (Halle et al., 2009). The gap begins as early as 9 months old and is well established by age 5 and remains there throughout the education years. In addition, many children who grow up in poverty will experience poverty as an adult (Ratcliffe & McKernan, 2012). It has been shown that poverty itself is the top determinant of poverty.
During the core education years (6-18), children tend to adhere to one of three performance groups: (1) survive, (2) maintain, or (3) thrive. The last group tends to have higher nurturing during their early childhood development years, are part of families with higher socioeconomic status, and have people (often parents, siblings, groups, friends) invested in their lives and well-being (Halle et al., 2009).
After high school graduation, nearly all of the students in the "thrive" group enroll in college, the military, and develop a trade (College Enrollment Statistics, 2021). In comparison, approximately half of the "maintain" group advance to higher learning or training, and a mere 5% of the "survive" group advance.
Success in education and life can be built upon a strong foundation of nurturing, support, and investment starting at birth and continuing from early childhood to adolescence.
The employment landscape is paved by access to higher education, training, and transportation
Employment opportunities, stability, and salaries are directly related to access to higher education, training, and transportation. So it shouldn't be a surprise that the "survive" group introduced above has the lowest incomes and highest unemployment rates followed by the "maintain" group (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2021). The "thrive" group has average salaries double of the "maintain" group and nearly triple of the "survive" group. There is an abundance of evidence that access to education, training, and transportation leads to better employment and higher salaries which increase access to healthcare and healthy living opportunities. The employment landscape is paved by access to higher education, training, and transportation.
Higher Salaries vs. Lower Cost Housing
While there is a significant focus on affordable housing, let us first understand why it's become unaffordable. Over the past few decades, there has been a growing disparity between the lower and upper-income earners. This has resulted in the diminished majority of the middle class, resulting in "low and lower-income" as the largest class of people now exceeding 50% of the population making less than a living wage (Ross & Bateman, 2019). While the housing market has kept up with inflation, working salaries have not.
Higher incomes are needed for a sustainable solution to increase equity and maintain economic stability.
So while lower-cost housing also known as affordable and workforce housing is needed, it serves only as an interim solution to the current state. Higher incomes are needed for a sustainable solution to increase equity and maintain economic stability.
So what now?
First, while large government programs have some benefits, the main interest of CFI is to see the opportunities for individuals be activated through local efforts of organizations that can have a greater impact on a personal level. In this way, people are seen as people and not merely a number within a large system. Every individual should be given an opportunity to succeed through hard work and perseverance while being supported through whatever challenges they may face. In addition, North Carolina, through its Early Childhood Action Plan, has prioritized 10 goals for children from birth through age eight that are designed to "provide children a fair opportunity to grow up healthy in safe and nurturing families, schools and communities."
Secondly, propagate and advance the issues to help meet the immediate and intermediate needs of the community while working to build momentum, change, and a stronger foundation for generational improvement.
Lastly, to help promote good health, consider your own life and lifestyle and strive for healthy living and good self-care. Also, share and care for those in your immediate family and extended social circles.
Just some thoughts for your consideration - the next steps belong to you.
References
Brown, T. T., & Jernigan, T. L. (2012). Brain development during the preschool years. Neuropsychology Review, 22(4), 313–333. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11065-012-9214-1
College Enrollment Statistics. Education Data Initiative. (2021, November 22). Retrieved November 29, 2021, from https://educationdata.org/college-enrollment-statistics/.
Halle, T., Forry, N., Hair, E., Perper, K., Wandner, L., Wessel, J., & Vick, J. (2009). Disparities in early learning and development: Lessons from the early childhood longitudinal study - birth cohort (ECLS-B). PsycEXTRA Dataset. https://doi.org/10.1037/e571822009-001
Heckman, J., Moon, S. H., Pinto, R., Savelyev, P., & Yavitz, A. (2009). The rate of return to the high/scope perry preschool program. https://doi.org/10.3386/w15471
Ratcliffe, C., & McKernan, S.-M. (2012). Child poverty and its lasting consequence. PsycEXTRA Dataset. https://doi.org/10.1037/e527922013-001
Stephenson, J., Heslehurst, N., Hall, J., Schoenaker, D. A., Hutchinson, J., Cade, J. E., Poston, L., Barrett, G., Crozier, S. R., Barker, M., Kumaran, K., Yajnik, C. S., Baird, J., & Mishra, G. D. (2018). Before the beginning: Nutrition and lifestyle in the preconception period and its importance for future health. The Lancet, 391(10132), 1830–1841. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(18)30311-8
Ross, M., & Bateman, N. (2019, November 21). Low-wage work is more pervasive than you think, and there aren't enough "Good jobs" to go around. Brookings. Retrieved November 29, 2021, from https://www.brookings.edu/blog/the-avenue/2019/11/21/low-wage-work-is-more-pervasive-than-you-think-and-there-arent-enough-good-jobs-to-go-around/.
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2021, April 21). Education pays. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Retrieved November 29, 2021, from https://www.bls.gov/emp/chart-unemployment-earnings-education.htm.
U.S. Census Bureau. (2021, October 18). Income and poverty in the United States: 2019. Census.gov. Retrieved November 29, 2021, from https://www.census.gov/library/publications/2020/demo/p60-270.html.
Excellent summation of a very important topic. Impressive.