Online Program

Oral

Over the last several years evidence has been developed on the impact of unemployment on illness and mortality rates preceding and during the Great Recession. Individual-level findings have been obtained for mental disorders, suicide, heart disease, stroke and overall health and mortality. Recently, the impact of unemployment has been observed, at the national level, on age-adjusted mortality for the ten major causes of death. In addition to unemployment, the major indicators of recession—GDP per capita, household income and health expenditures per capita—are now seen to have a far greater impact on mortality than the unemployment rate alone in the United States. This panel will present and discuss the differences between the individual-level and national findings with special attention to multi-level and ecological effects.

Session Objectives: Explain the relation between changes in patterns of income and unemployment in relation to mental health and chronic disease mortality Identify how national health expenditures influence heart disease, cancer and stroke mortality Differentiate the effects of unemployment on the major causes of mortality in the United States