Being Poor in South O.C. Is Bad for Your Health

According to consultants for the St. Joseph’s hospital system, being poor is bad for your health.

In a recent survey of residents of San Clemente, San Juan Capistrano and Lake Forest, responses to questions about diet and exercise, smoking and drinking and diabetes and obesity showed that residents who make less than $66,000 per year for a family of four were significantly less healthy than those above that income line.

Furthermore, the Hispanic people in the three towns fared worse than their neighbors of other races, according to the the survey.

The Mission Hospital system in the coming months will be gathering local service organizations, government and school officials and health professionals for dozens of projects to make San Clemente, San Juan Capistrano and Lake Forest healthier.

The hospital, part of the St. Joseph Catholic hospital system, conducts these surveys every three years to figure out where to direct the 10 percent of revenue set aside each year to reach out to the poor.

“We look at certain key demographic data; we find that those cities have the most residents in need,” said Christy Cornwall, the community benefit director for Mission Hospital.

The survey takers from the consulting firm Professional Research Consultants Inc. interviewed almost 1,000 residents among the three communities, making sure to call people who lived in neighborhoods demographically identified as low-income. Bruce Lockwood of the firm said each city had different strengths and weaknesses.

For instance, San Clemente has higher than average rates of people reporting they had skin cancer at some point in their lives. Binge drinking is also a problem among San Clemente residents, as is affordable housing. Also, children in the city are spending too much leisure time in front of screens, whether television or computer screens.

In Lake Forest, depression is a problem, as well as higher than average rates of fast-food consumption and childhood asthma. Kids in Lake Forest don’t eat enough fruit.

In San Juan, access to health care is a problem for many, whether they lack insurance or transportation. People also spend a lot of time worrying about being able to pay their rent or mortgage, and many respondents cited a lack of access to fresh fruits and vegetables at affordable prices.

Almost without fail, residents in the poorer neighborhoods in these cities have it worse off in all these categories than their wealthier neighbors.

Look for more detailed results from this survey soon on Patch.