Health and Health Choices of People Living in Precarious Prosperity in Romania

This paper looks at health status and health choices of people living in precarious prosperity in Romania. It analyses the various constraints coming from both structural contexts and social position that influence the health status of people in precarious prosperity. First, the paper scrutinizes how different structural contexts given by residence (rural/urban) can determine health and health choices. Second, the paper concentrates on the constraints coming from the social position of people living in precarious prosperity and describes the mechanisms through which they influence health status. Finally, it looks at the spillover effects that health status can have in other domains of life. Our analysis focuses on a social layer represented by those living in precarious prosperity situations, in a position above the poverty threshold and facing high material deprivation. The data consists in two waves of in-depth interviews with people living in households in precarious prosperity from two different communities in Romania (one urban, one rural). A total of 88 of households were interviewed in two consecutive waves: 50 households in the first wave (2012-2013) and 38 in the second wave (2014-2015).  A qualitative content analysis of the interviews is carried out. Results show that structural contexts impose important constraints on people’s health choices in what regards access to health and this has spill-over effects in other domains of life. Also, there are important limitations coming from the social position that impact on the life chances of people in precarious prosperity.