Study: Bad Economy May Be Good for Your Health

Christopher Ruhm, PhD, has conducted research on mortality during recent recessions. He says the new findings aren’t “out in left field” and are consistent with research in milder recessions. However, the magnitude of the effect—and that it appeared during a time of almost total economic collapse, not just a recession—was unexpected.

“When you have the collapse of an economy, I would have thought there would be other things going on that are more than reversing that,” says Ruhm, a professor of economics at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro. “The Soviet Union, when it broke up and the economy just collapsed, that wasn’t good for people’s health.”

Since doctors have made such strides with life expectancy in the past century (we are now expected to live until 77.7 years of age in the U.S.), the economy may have a smaller impact on health than the gains seen in the new study, he says.

“In a modern economy, I wouldn’t think you’d see anything near that large,” Ruhm says. His research suggests that for each percentage-point increase in the unemployment rate, mortality drops by half a percent.

“That’s a nontrivial effect, but in terms of major determinants of health, it’s not the dominant determinant of health or anything close to it,” he says.

Ruhm says his research doesn’t provide any clues to coping with a job loss, but he has had people tell him they lost 30 pounds after being laid off because they stopped eating out and started exercising more. “That’s just anecdotal evidence, but it turns out the data provide some support for that,” he says.

According to Ruhm, outplacement counselors and therapists often advise people to take control of things they can do something about, such as paying attention to what you eat, trying to be a little more active, or working harder to connect with family. “At least the parts you can control, try to move those in a positive way—and the data suggest that people actually do that," he says.