High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Diseases of poverty is a term sometimes used to collectively describe diseases and health conditions that are more prevalent among the poor than among wealthier people. In many cases poverty is considered the leading risk factor or determinant for such diseases, and in some cases the diseases themselves are identified as barriers to economic development that would end poverty. These diseases are in contrast to so-called "diseases of affluence", which are diseases thought to be a result of increasing wealth in a society.