The Hidden Tax on Well-being: Socioeconomic Barriers Go Deeper Than Dollars

An eye-opening examination of data from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing highlights how wealth significantly impacts the ability of older adults to meet basic health guidelines, with a stark link to depression.

An analysis of survey responses from more than 3,000 adults aged 50 to 90 revealed the following:

• Older adults in high income brackets are almost twice as likely to meet World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations for diet and exercise compared to those in low income brackets.

• Older adults who don’t meet WHO health guidelines are significantly more likely to suffer from depression: Rates of depression in older adults were nearly three times higher among those in the lowest wealth quintile compared to those in the highest.

The WHO health guidelines include at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity (or 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity) physical activity per week and a daily intake of at least five portions of fruit and vegetables.

This is important because not meeting government guidelines for physical activity and diet can have harmful health consequences in the long-term.

The findings also suggest that staying physically active and eating well not only improve physical health but may also promote mental wellbeing.

Beyond financial barriers to healthy food and exercise, we must acknowledge the invisible "mental bandwidth tax" of scarcity. Constant worry about survival relentlessly drains the mental energy needed for even "free" self-care like exercise or mindfulness.

Lack of access to resources (that support healthy living) stands in the way of a healthy lifestyle. Stress overwhelms the mind, making self-care difficult. Therefore, we need to tackle both financial barriers and mental burdens of the less affluent in order to achieve health equity.