“21st century health-poverty trap.”

The JAMA Forum

April 3, 2018

Income, Poverty, and Health Inequality

Dave A. Chokshi, MD, MSc¹

Author Affiliations Article Information

JAMA. 2018;319(13):1312-1313. doi:10.1001/jama.2018.2521

The health of people with low incomes historically has been a driver of public health advances in the United States. For example, in New York City, cholera deaths during outbreaks in 1832 and 1854 concentrated among the poor helped push forward the Metropolitan Health Law, which allowed for regulation of sanitary conditions in the city. The law was an exemplar for other municipalities across the United States, saving countless lives during subsequent cholera epidemics as well as from typhus, dysentery, and smallpox./.../