According to the researchers, cumulative hardships--a diet of inadequate quality or quantity, temperature stress from lack of heat or cooling, and frequent moves or increased exposure to infectious disease and noise in crowded households--exert direct negative physiologic consequences on children.

"The current findings raise serious concerns about the future well-being of America's young children, given rising poverty among families with young children and many households' inadequate wages and benefits to meet fluctuating food, housing, and energy costs," explained lead author Deborah Frank, MD, director of BMC's Grow Clinic and a professor of pediatrics at Boston University School of Medicine. "We know that deprivations in early life can become biologically embedded, forcing children onto negative trajectories that jeopardize their health, their school readiness, and their ability to earn a living as adults. We also know that the remedies for many of these hardships are within reach if our society chooses to prescribe them."

Source: Boston University Medical Center