Healthy Recession

Bad economic times could be good for your health, reports Tara Parker-Pope in the New York Times (10/7/08). Grant Miller of Stanford University explains, “The value of time is higher during good economic times … So people work more and do less of the things that are good for them, like cooking at home and exercising; and people experience more stress due to the rigors of hard work during booms.” This can be just as true in developing countries, as Dr. Miller discovered in a study of “the effects of fluctuating coffee prices on health in Colombia.”

Dr. Miller found that falling coffee prices “appear to improve health and mortality rates,” partly because “laborers have more time to care for their children.” A “similar effect” kicked in the United States in “the Dust Bowl during the Great Depression.” Another study, by economics professor, Christopher J. Ruhm, “found that death rates declined sharply in the 1974 and 1982 recessions and increased in the economic recovery of the 1980s … Over all, the death rate fell by more than eight percent in the 20-year period of mostly economic decline, led by drops in heart disease and car crashes.”

However, the same period saw rises in deaths related to “mental well-being and access to health care. For instance, cancer deaths rose 23 percent, and deaths from flu and pneumonia increased slightly. Suicides rose two percent, and homicides 12 percent.” The Free University of Amsterdam meanwhile found “that individuals born in a recession were at higher risk for heart problems later in life, and lived, on average, 15 months less than those born under better conditions.” This concerns Dr. Paul Keckley, who sees trouble ahead given that approximately “46 million Americans lack health insurance,” commenting: “There may be slivers of positive, but I view this as sobering.” ~ Tim Manners, editor