Health care and social assistance systems break down, and some normally treatable conditions can become disabling. Much of the psychological disability brought on by conflict-related trauma often remains undiagnosed and unrecorded. The Path from Poverty to Disability Correlations between disability and age, education, income, ethnicity, living arrangements, and gender cannot determine causality - not only does disability add to the risk of poverty, but conditions of poverty add to the risk of disability. Poor households do not have adequate food, basic sanitation, and access to preventive health care. They live in lower quality housing, and work in more dangerous occupations.
Malnutrition can cause disability as well as increase susceptibility to other disabling diseases.
Malnourished mothers have low birth-weight babies, who are more at risk of debilitating diseases than healthy babies. Lack of adequate and timely health care can exacerbate disease outcomes, and a remedial impairment can become a permanent disability. Additional costs include those for extra medical expenses, specialized equipment and services, etc., and costs incurred by care providers. Even in developed countries, families play a major role in preventing poverty among the elderly through shared living arrangements. Barriers Exclusion and marginalization reduce the opportunities for the disabled to contribute productively to the household and community, and increase the risk of falling into poverty.