Here's a timely question: can poverty make you sick?

According to Statistics Canada, about 3 million Canadians - more than 9% of the population - lived in low-income situations in 2007. Since late 2008 and the arrival of the worldwide economic crisis, many middle class Canadians have also found themselves in tougher financial conditions. This fall, the national unemployment rate hit 8.7%.

It's important, then, to understand how living in difficult circumstances affects physical and mental health.

Across Canada, CIHR-funded investigators are engaged in leading-edge research into the impacts of poverty on health. They are studying the health effects of relocating the residents of a 60-year-old social housing project to a modern multi-income community. They are analyzing the health benefits of an experiment that eradicated poverty in a prairie town. They are advancing our knowledge of how - biology notwithstanding - the economic and social conditions in which we live play a critical role in how healthy we are.

Throughout the month of October, visit the CIHR website to learn more about the latest research into how economic realities affect Canadians' health.

• A Natural Experiment
• Life in a Town Without Poverty
• The Street Where You Live
• Supersizing the Poor