True, but that doesn't prove that "low socioeconomic status," of itself, "causes ill-health."
What's the chain of causation there? Germs check your bank statement before infecting you?
I think the chain of causation is that cheaper foods tend to be high-fructose-corn-syrup and white flour based. These are probably the two biggest contributors to obesity. Whole wheat bread tends to be more expensive than white bread. The same with whole wheat pasta. Some fresh fruits and vegetables are cheap, but don’t last very long and cannot be frozen. Boxed foods tend to have white four, white rice, or lots of sweeteners.
Think of a diet where you have sugary cereal in the morning, chips for a snack, a (sweetened) peanut butter or baloney and mayo sandwich on white bread for lunch, and hamburger helper or chicken, rice and cream of mushroom for dinner. Sugar, starch, and fat are dirt cheap. Foods with high nutrients are far more expensive at the grocery store.
Very few people in America die of infectious disease.
Poor people are on average much heavier, smoke more, are less well educated, are more likely to be drug users, and a whole host of other unhealthy factors. They also tend to have health care that isn’t as good.
It is a very well proven fact that poor people on average die much sooner than the middle class or rich, just as it is that poor people have a lot more babies.