title: The effects of poverty on children's development and oral health.
abstract: According to the US Census Bureau, the poverty rate for children under 18 years of age increased to 22% in 2010. Poverty leads to adverse health outcomes in children and adolescents such as harmful effects on learning, psychosocial development, physical health, productivity and family  life. Because the citizens and residents of a country are its most valuable assets, it is unwise to allow housing instability, food insecurity and hunger to continue to exist at its current levels. Reducing poverty is likely to prevent illnesses, decrease hospitalizations, and lead to lower  health care costs. There is also a need for intervention strategies to ensure equitable access to healthy foods across the world. Children who are food insecure are more likely to be in poor health and to have poor nutritional outcomes. Poverty may lead to poor dental health due to malnutrition  or incorrect diet and it may also have an effect on the child's behavior in the dental office. An understanding of poverty will lessen the anger, frustration and prejudice that pediatric dentists may feel when working with low-income families. This manuscript presents a concise overview of  the effects of poverty in children's lives.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatric Dentistry, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA. marcio@uw.edu
authors.forename: Marcio A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: da Fonseca
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development; D054521:Cultural Competency; D003731:Dental Caries / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D005523:Food Supply; D006297:Health Services Accessibility; D006801:Humans; D006815:Hunger; D008297:Male; D009909:Oral Health; D011157:Population Dynamics; D011203:Poverty; D013315:Stress, Psychological; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology