--- title: Teen Health: Widening Income Inequality Leads to Increasing Health Gap description: Disparities in health between rich and poor teens is growing globally, a new study has found canonical: https://time.com/3695008/health-inequality-rises-globally-children-income/ author: David Stout article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-02-04T07:58:52.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T04:08:01.135Z article:section: Health og:title: There Are Growing Gaps in Teen Health og:description: RIch kids are getting healthier but poor ones aren't, study finds. og:url: https://time.com/3695008/health-inequality-rises-globally-children-income/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: There Are Growing Gaps in Teen Health twitter:description: RIch kids are getting healthier but poor ones aren't, study finds. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # There's a Growing Health Gap Between Rich and Poor Teens by [David Stout](https://time.com/author/david-stout/) ## David Stout Feb 4, 2015 7:58 AM UTC by [David Stout](https://time.com/author/david-stout/) ## David Stout Feb 4, 2015 7:58 AM UTC Disparities in health between rich and poor adolescents grew globally during the first decade of this century, according to a survey conducted in 34 countries in Europe and North America. The study, published in the _Lancet_, reports that “socioeconomic differences across multiple areas of adolescent mental and physical health increased between 2002 and 2010.” According to the research, adolescents from the most impoverished socioeconomic groups are more likely to suffer from poor health thanks to diminished physical activity and larger body mass indices. “A strong international focus on reducing child poverty and mortality in children under five years has not been matched by a similar response in older age groups, resulting in widening socioeconomic inequalities in adolescent health,” says Frank Elgar, a psychiatry professor at McGill University in Montreal. Researchers behind the study relied on data compiled from 500,000 young people from across Europe and North America who participated in a World Health Organization survey. \[[_Science Daily_](http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/02/150203190219.htm)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3695008/health-inequality-rises-globally-children-income/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3695008/health-inequality-rises-globally-children-income/"},"headline":"There's a Growing Health Gap Between Rich and Poor Teens","datePublished":"2015-02-04T07:58:52.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T04:08:01.135Z","description":"International efforts to improve health for the under-5-year-olds are not being matched for older children, a new study reveals","url":"https://time.com/3695008/health-inequality-rises-globally-children-income/","keywords":["Research","Children","Public Health","Wealth","World Health Organization"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"David Stout","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/david-stout/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/research/","name":"Research"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3695008/health-inequality-rises-globally-children-income/","name":"There's a Growing Health Gap Between Rich and Poor Teens"}}]}] ```