Bad Economy Boosters Health: Study

A feeble economy may add years to your life by inducing lifestyle changes that are good for your health, according to a University of Michigan study released today.

While the years of The Great Depression brought unemployment to 25 percent of Americans and crop prices dropped 60 percent, life expectancy actually rose by 6.2 years, say researchers.

In 1929, when Black Tuesday brought the stock market to a resounding crash, the average life expectancy was 57.1 years. In 1932, when economists feel the worst was over, people were living to an average of 63.3 years. The age increases were for both men and women, and whites and non-whites.

"The finding is strong and counterintuitive," said Jose Tapia Granados, lead author of the study, of the Institute for Social Research at U-M. "Most people assume that periods of high unemployment are harmful to health."

Researchers looked at six common mortality causes in the 1930s: cardiovascular and renal disease, cancer, influenza and pneumonia, tuberculosis, traffic injuries and suicide. Health improvements during the Depression were found in all categories, said researchers, except for suicide.

Suicide rates went from 14 to 17 per 100,000 people during the Depression, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

But all other causes of death went down, said researchers, due to changes in workplace environments and lifestyles during economic downturns.

"Working conditions are very different during expansions and recessions," said Granados. "During expansions, firms are very busy and they typically demand a lot of effort from employees, who are required to work a lot of overtime, and to work at a fast pace. This can create stress, which is associated with more drinking and smoking."

As more inexperienced workers are hired during expanding economies, injuries are also more likely to happen, said Granados.  Other health-related factors could be that people sleep less when they're busier at work and they tend to have poorer diets, Granados said.

Cardiovascular and respiratory mortalities also increase when economies flourish, said researchers.

And while the research is positive for all but suicide cases, the general population does better as a whole during economic downturns, researchers reported.

"Social science is not physics," said Granados. "Historical experience tells us that no particular deterioration of mortality is to be expected as a consequence of a recession beyond an increase in suicides which, although clearly important, is of small magnitude compared to the reduced number of fatalities from other causes."

The study was published in the current issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

By Eileen McGaurin