Trends in poverty in Israel

Many studies have over time shown that children growing up in poverty will most likely have long lasting effects on their physical and mental health, effects on medical service utilization and criminal behavior. Poverty is even in developed countries like United States and Israel a major public health problem of a magnitude that is markedly different than for example Scandinavian countries. This paper presents data from the Israel National Insurance Institute research on poverty. The data showed the incidence of poverty at 20% of all families in 2005/6. The number of families living in poverty in 2005/6 was 404,500 with 1,630,100 persons and 775,400 children. In other words 35% of the children in Israel live in poverty. It is concluded that there is a need for further preventive wotk to alter the effects of poverty on child development and adaptive behaviors, and to find ways to make policy relevant research. Pediatricians and child health care workers should also be trained in community advocacy work in order to work as a coalition in the community towards prevention of poverty and poverty related health problems.