Individual-level changes in self-rated health before and during the economic crisis in Europe

Abstract

BackgroundChanges over time in self-rated health (SRH) are increasingly documented during the current economic crisis, though whether these are due to selection, causation, or methodological artefacts is unclear. This study accordingly investigates changes in SRH, and social inequalities in these changes, before and during the economic crisis in 23 European countries.MethodsWe used balanced panel data, 2005–2011, from the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC). We included the working-age population (25–60 years old) living in 23 European countries. The data cover 65,618 respondents, 2005–2007 (pre-recession cohort), and 43,188 respondents, 2008–2011 (recession cohort). The data analyses used mixed-effects ordinal logistic regression models considering the degree of recession (i.e., pre, mild, and severe).ResultsIndividual-level changes in SRH over time indicted a stable trend during the pre-recession period, while a significant increasing trend in fair and poor SRH was found in the mild- and severe-recession cohorts. Micro-level demographic and socio-economic status (SES) factors (i.e., age, gender, education, and transitions to employment/unemployment), and macro-level factors such as welfare generosity are significantly associated with SRH trends across the degrees of recession.ConclusionsThe current economic crisis accounts for an increasing trend in fair and poor SRH among the general working-age population of Europe. Despite the general SES inequalities in SRH, the health of vulnerable groups has been affected the same way before and during the current recession.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12939-015-0290-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Contrasted trends in health-related quality of life across gender, age categories and work status in France, 1995–2016: repeated population-based cross-sectional surveys using the SF-36

“…The suicide rate among the unemployed decreases during economic recession and increases during recovery 30. Social protection for the unemployed can moderate negative health-related consequences of unemployment, as shown in some European countries27; it seems plausible that the French social protection system contributed to limiting disparities between the unemployed and the employed during the recession 31…”

Capacity building for health inequality monitoring in Indonesia: enhancing the equity orientation of country health information systems

“…Another key success factor in the process in Indonesia was the concurrent development of specific software and technology for health inequality monitoring which enabled the use of local datasets. The existence of a technical handbook and easily accessible tools helped facilitate the application of the software to monitor health inequalities [7–9,11, 17]. At the heart of the collaborative process in Indonesia was the strong and ongoing support by the WHO country office, both at senior levels and by way of commitment and dedicated time of WHO staff, which helped maintain the momentum and relationships between stakeholders.…”

Are alcohol‐related disparities between sexual minority and heterosexual youth decreasing?

“…Essentially, this approach of producing age-adjusted year-by-sexual orientation interaction terms estimates the change in the disparity over time (and thus, the degree of substance use disparities between groups). More detailed explanations of this approach are available elsewhere [34]. …”

“…Considering the link between anti-LGB attitudes and increased alcohol use among sexual minority youth [31–33], we hypothesize that these trends in LGB acceptance could lead to a decrease in alcohol-related disparities between sexual minority and heterosexual youth. Although researchers have started to document trends in LGB health disparities over time [34], studies have yet to examine whether trends in alcohol-related disparities are changing as a function of broader social acceptance and the implementation of LGB-specific protections [29]. …”