A study in 2000 estimated that a one percent rise in unemployment reduced the death rate by 0.5 percent.
Now researchers are attempting to explain why the unemployed, or those who are employed with less work to do, are more likely to exercise, cook healthy meals and keep doctors’ appointments.
The study goes against conventional wisdom, which suggests that economic slowdowns actually harm health, with two exceptions. The pattern does not apply to mental health and its emphasis is on "temporary" slowdowns, as researchers say that in the long-term a rising economy is beneficial to health.
In the short-term, improvements in technology often do not occur fast enough to improve productivity. Therefore, workers must compensate by working longer, more stressful hours, making time for anything else, including exercise and healthy cooking, scarce.
The study showed small changes in several areas. As unemployment increased by one percent, smoking decreased by 0.6 percent, obesity by 0.3 percent and physical inactivity by 1.8 percent.
However, the relationship between the health of the economy and the health of individuals is hard to understand because of the many variables involved. For example, unemployed people may get more medical attention in order to use their insurance before it expires and employed people may take more vacations, leading to health problems from sunburn.
Critics of the study say there are so many factors involved that it is nearly impossible to measure the relationship. However, researchers say that complex statistical methodology takes many of the factors into account.
Yahoo News, February 4, 2003
I suspect this observation can be largely explained by Hans Selye’s work on stress. Stress will tend to make your system healthier as long as you have the internal resources to adjust and compensate for it.
Dr. Hans Selye was the pioneer in stress research in the 1930s. He defines stress as the non-specific response of the body to any demands made upon it. Each demand made on the body is unique in that there is a definite response: when we are cold we shiver; when we are hot we perspire; a great muscular effort increases the demands upon the heart and vascular system.
However, whatever the specific response, a non-specific response is also activated, which is independent of the cause. For example, a woman who is told that her husband died in battle suffers a terrible mental shock. If, years later, he walks into the room alive and well, she experiences extreme joy.
The specific results of the stress are opposite, but the non-specific effect on the body is the same. The accumulation of stressors, whether good or bad, will, if intense enough, ultimately cause physical disorders.
This is just how exercise works. Exercise typically breaks down and damages body tissues, but the body compensates and recovers for this and actually ends up stronger. However, as we all know, if you overdo exercise and exceed your body’s recovery capacity, you can cause some fairly serious and sometimes permanent injuries.
More details on stress are available in Dr. Selye’s excellent book,"The Stress of Life," which I highly recommend.