“Great Recession Saved Lives: Research”

“Great Recession Saved Lives: Research,” by Allison Bell, ThinkAdvisor

“The Great Recession showed that, at least in the short run, a severe economic crisis may help people live longer, according to a team of economists led by Amy Finkelstein of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The team found that the 2007-2009 slump improved the age-adjusted mortality rate in a community by 2.3%, or by 0.5% for every 1-percentage-point increase in the community’s unemployment rate, and that the improvement lasted for at least 10 years. ‘These estimates imply that the Great Recession provided one in 25 55-year-olds with an extra year of life,’ the Finkelstein team wrote in a working paper published behind a log-in wall on the website of the National Bureau of Economic Research.”

LTC Comment, Stephen A. Moses, President, Center for Long-Term Care Reform:

Makes sense. If you’re sitting at home alone instead of interacting with people at work, you’re less likely to get sick and maybe more likely to work out, eat healthy. But how does this finding jibe with reports of declining life expectancy?