mrz
04-02-03, 12:00
Researcher: Lean Economic Times May Be Good for Your Health
By Justin Pope The Associated Press
Published: Feb 4, 2003
BOSTON (AP) - The sickly economy may have a silver lining: Research shows tough times are good for your health.
In a paper published by the National Bureau of Economic Research in Cambridge, Mass., economist Christopher J. Ruhm concluded that when jobs are scarce, both unemployed workers and those who keep their jobs (but perhaps with less work to do) behave in a healthier manner.
They're more likely to exercise, less likely to pig out at restaurants or skip doctors' appointments, he concluded. Also, it's the heaviest smokers and most obese who change their behavior during a slump.
Ruhm's idea flies in the face of conventional wisdom, including work by Johns Hopkins University researcher M. Harvey Brenner, who suggested the downturns of the early 1970s and 1980s harmed health.
But Ruhm, a researcher at the University of North Carolina-Greensboro, worked with data from 1972 to 2000 and said his numbers suggest the reverse of Brenner's conclusions, with two big caveats.
First, he readily admits mental health does not necessarily fit the same pattern. And the emphasis of the study is "temporary" economic downturns. In the long run, he says, economic growth is indisputably good for health.
"My strong belief is that moving from Bangladesh to the United States is very good for your health," he said. "There's no question about that."
But long-term growth comes from technology, and technology doesn't develop at a regular pace.
In the short term, technology may not improve productivity fast enough, so people make up the difference by working longer, more stressful hours. When work is more pressing, and even more rewarding, there's an increase in the "opportunity cost" of doing anything else - including exercising, seeing a doctor and taking the time to cook a healthy meal.
Admittedly, the data show small changes, Ruhm said. He concluded an increase of 1 percent in a state unemployment rate reduces smoking, obesity and physical inactivity rates by 0.6 percent, 0.3 percent and 1.8 percent, respectively.
Such studies demonstrate the growing interest of economists in questions of whether people behave rationally when it comes to their well-being. Why, for instance, have obesity rates in the U.S. risen so sharply over the past 25 years, despite general prosperity?
But nobody has found much success understanding the relationship between the health of the economy and the health of individuals.
That's because it's virtually impossible to isolate so many causes from so many effects. Laid off workers, for instance, may lose their insurance but may gorge on medical care just before it expires. Prosperous workers have more options for a healthier lifestyle - such as gym memberships - but also more temptations - vacations that lead to sunburn, for example.
"When people have had trouble finding a relationship or it goes counter to what they expect, part of the problem may be it's just so devilishly hard to measure," said Dr. Alan Garber, director of the Center for Health Policy at Stanford University.
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On the Net:
Healthy Living in Hard Times: http://papers.nber.org/papers/W9468
AP-ES-02-04-03 0638EST
http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGAHUY7SRBD.html
By Justin Pope The Associated Press
Published: Feb 4, 2003
BOSTON (AP) - The sickly economy may have a silver lining: Research shows tough times are good for your health.
In a paper published by the National Bureau of Economic Research in Cambridge, Mass., economist Christopher J. Ruhm concluded that when jobs are scarce, both unemployed workers and those who keep their jobs (but perhaps with less work to do) behave in a healthier manner.
They're more likely to exercise, less likely to pig out at restaurants or skip doctors' appointments, he concluded. Also, it's the heaviest smokers and most obese who change their behavior during a slump.
Ruhm's idea flies in the face of conventional wisdom, including work by Johns Hopkins University researcher M. Harvey Brenner, who suggested the downturns of the early 1970s and 1980s harmed health.
But Ruhm, a researcher at the University of North Carolina-Greensboro, worked with data from 1972 to 2000 and said his numbers suggest the reverse of Brenner's conclusions, with two big caveats.
First, he readily admits mental health does not necessarily fit the same pattern. And the emphasis of the study is "temporary" economic downturns. In the long run, he says, economic growth is indisputably good for health.
"My strong belief is that moving from Bangladesh to the United States is very good for your health," he said. "There's no question about that."
But long-term growth comes from technology, and technology doesn't develop at a regular pace.
In the short term, technology may not improve productivity fast enough, so people make up the difference by working longer, more stressful hours. When work is more pressing, and even more rewarding, there's an increase in the "opportunity cost" of doing anything else - including exercising, seeing a doctor and taking the time to cook a healthy meal.
Admittedly, the data show small changes, Ruhm said. He concluded an increase of 1 percent in a state unemployment rate reduces smoking, obesity and physical inactivity rates by 0.6 percent, 0.3 percent and 1.8 percent, respectively.
Such studies demonstrate the growing interest of economists in questions of whether people behave rationally when it comes to their well-being. Why, for instance, have obesity rates in the U.S. risen so sharply over the past 25 years, despite general prosperity?
But nobody has found much success understanding the relationship between the health of the economy and the health of individuals.
That's because it's virtually impossible to isolate so many causes from so many effects. Laid off workers, for instance, may lose their insurance but may gorge on medical care just before it expires. Prosperous workers have more options for a healthier lifestyle - such as gym memberships - but also more temptations - vacations that lead to sunburn, for example.
"When people have had trouble finding a relationship or it goes counter to what they expect, part of the problem may be it's just so devilishly hard to measure," said Dr. Alan Garber, director of the Center for Health Policy at Stanford University.
---
On the Net:
Healthy Living in Hard Times: http://papers.nber.org/papers/W9468
AP-ES-02-04-03 0638EST
http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGAHUY7SRBD.html