Washington, Sep 29 (Inditop.com) The Great Depression that ruined millions of families in the US during the thirties also saw life expectancy go up by 6.2 years, according to a latest research.
Life expectancy rose from 57.1 years in 1929 to 63.3 years in 1932 for both men and women, whites and non-whites, according to an analysis by University of Michigan (U-M) researchers Jose A. Tapia Granados and Ana Diez Roux.
“The finding is strong and counter-intuitive,” said Granados, lead study author and researcher at the U-M Institute for Social Research (ISR). “Most people assume that periods of high unemployment are harmful to health.”
For the study, researchers used historical life expectancy and mortality data to examine associations between economic growth and population health for 1920 to 1940, according to a U-M release.
They found that while population health generally improved during the four years of the Great Depression and during recessions in 1921 and 1938, mortality increased and life expectancy declined during periods of strong economic expansion, such as 1923, 1926, 1929, and 1936-1937.
The researchers analysed age-specific mortality rates and rates due to six causes of death that composed about two-thirds of total mortality in the 1930s: cardiovascular and renal diseases, cancer, influenza and pneumonia, tuberculosis, motor vehicle traffic injuries, and suicide.
The association between improving health and economic slowdown was true for all ages, and for every major cause of death except one: suicide.
“Working conditions are very different during expansions and recessions,” Tapia Granados said.
“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.”
“Also, new workers may be hired who are inexperienced, so injuries are likely to be more common. And people who are working a lot may also sleep less which is known to have implications for health. Other health-related behaviours such as diet may also change for the worse during expansions,” added Granados.
These findings were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
