Short-term effects of the earned income tax credit on children's physical and mental health

Childhood poverty is associated with worse health outcomes, including poor physical and cognitive development, and can adversely influence social and health outcomes in later life. While there is increasing interest in policies to address childhood poverty, limited research exists on whether current U.S. poverty alleviation policies, including the largest such program, the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), improve children's health. Building on their prior work on the impacts of EITC, Akansha Batra, MS, and Rita Hamad, MD, PhD, examined the short-term effects of the EITC on children's physical and mental health in this study published in Annals of Epidemiology. (author introduction)