Impact of the economic crises on suicide in Italy: the moderating role of active labor market programs

Abstract

Purpose To analyze the association between unemployment and suicide in Italy during the years 1990-2014, with a peculiar focus on the Great Recession (GR) and the role played by social protection as buffering mechanism against the negative effect on health outcomes. Methods Fixed effects panel regressions were used to assess the association between changes in unemployment rate and suicide rates. Additional models investigated the role of active labor market programs (ALMPs) as possible moderators of the association. Analyses were carried out for both males and females, stratified by age and region. Results The negative time-trend displayed by suicide rate in Italy until 2007 was slowed down by changes in unemployment at the beginning of the GR, when this trend reversed and the rate of suicide started increasing. Male workers aged 25-64 and women aged 55-64 years were affected by both "normal" unemployment rate fluctuations as well as severe economic crises. Women aged 35-44 were only influenced by the latter. Men benefit from ALMPs mainly in Central Italy, while women did not benefit significantly from ALMPs. Conclusions In Italy, economic downturns were associated with increased suicides mainly among men, while severe economic crises were associated with increased suicides among both men and women. ALMPs showed to be effective in moderating the association between unemployment and suicide among men aged 45-54 only in Central Italy. The overall small effectiveness of such programs may be due to lack of sufficient funding.

Analysing regional unemployment rates, GDP per capita and financial support for regional suicide prevention programme on suicide mortality in Japan using governmental statistical data

“…5 Similarly, economic downturns could increase male suicide mortality only, whereas recession increased both male and female suicide mortalities. 7 Taken together with previous findings in Europe and North America, the present results suggest that unemployment is a risk factor for an increase in male suicide mortality compared with female suicide. Female EBSMR was not affected by complete unemployment rates and was less sensitive to EFECBSC compared with male EBSMR, since only female EBSMR of older populations (70s and 80s) were sensitive to the municipal development programme of leaders and listener and the enlightenment programme, respectively.…”

“…North America and Asia. [5][6][7][8][9][10] Indeed, in Japan, following the collapse of the asset bubble in 1991 and the Asian economic crisis in 1997, both the unemployment rate and suicide mortality drastically increased in Japan (online supplementary appendix 1). 11 12 This Japanese public health crisis started to improve in 2009.…”

“…In this study, we hypothesised that suicide mortality has gender-specific and age-specific sensitivities to unemployment rate, GDP per capita and EFECBSC, based on previous findings about the impacts of macroeconomic factors and governmental financial support on suicide mortality. [5][6][7][8][9][10] Therefore, to develop a more cost-effective, evidence-based regional suicide mortality prevention programme, in this study, we analyse the impacts of prefecture-disaggregated unemployment rate, GDP per capita and the regional (prefectural/municipal) implementation amount of EFECBSC to 10 sub-divisions on gender and age disaggregated suicide mortalities between 2009 and 2018 when national suicide mortality has been decreasing.…”

“…In detail, the increased suicide mortality was due to the synergistic effects of unemployment and long-term unemployment (more than 12 months) induced by these two recessions, similar to the case in Italy. 7 Long-term unemployment increases the incidence of several mental disorder through a lower level of social integration. 7 Additionally, fear of losing one's job and/or corporate restructuring are risk factors for suicide.…”

Unemployment and suicide in Italy: evidence of a long-run association mitigated by public unemployment spending

“…This was the case in Italy after the crisis of the early 1990s, when long-term unemployment increased from 57.7% of total unemployment in 1993 (the lowest since 1983) to 66.3% in 1997. The same can be noticed after the onset of the late 2000s financial crisis, which increased the risk of poor mental health and unemployment, especially among people affected by mental disorders [47,48,49]. In 2009, long-term unemployment was 44.6% of total unemployment (the lowest record available); after the onset of the European sovereign debt crisis in 2010, it increased to 61.4% in 2014.…”