1,721,124 research outputs found
Suicidality, economic shocks, and egalitarian gender norms
No full textDurkheim conceived of suicide as a product of social integration and regulation. Although the sociology of suicide has focused on the role of disintegration, to our knowledge, the interaction between integration and regulation has yet to be empirically evaluated. In this article we test whether more egalitarian gender norms, an important form of macro-regulation, protects men and women against suicidality during economic shocks. Using cross-national data covering 20 European Union countries from the years 1991 to 2011, including the recent economic crises in Europe, we first assessed the relation between unemployment and suicide. Then we evaluated potential effect modification using three measures of gender equality, the gender ratio in labour force participation, the gender pay gap, and women’s representation in parliament using multiple measures. We found no evidence of a significant, direct link between greater gender equality and suicide rates in either men or women. However, a greater degree of gender equality helped protect against suicidality associated with economic shocks. At relatively high levels of gender equality in Europe, such as those seen in Sweden and Austria, the relationship between rising unemployment rates and suicide in men disappeared altogether. Our findings suggest that more egalitarian forms of gender regulation may help buffer the suicidal consequences of economic shocks, especially in men
Commentary: Would your health be better if you lived in England or in the USA?
No full textNo abstract availabl
Rising food insecurity in Europe
No full textPeople queueing for food aid is an image reminiscent of the Great Depression in the 1930s, but one that has come to characterise many European nations in the grip of austerity today. In 2013–14, the UK's Trussell Trust, a national network of food banks, provided emergency food aid to more than 900 000 adults and children, a 163% increase from the previous year.1 Greek, Spanish, and French charities have also reported marked rises in the number of people seeking emergency food support.2 Alongside clinical evidence of rising nutritional deficiencies,2,3 these reports suggest that a problem is emerging, but to what extent is food insecurity rising across Europe
'It's The Sun Wot Won It': Evidence of media influence on political attitudes and voting from a UK quasi-natural experiment.
No full textDo print media significantly impact political attitudes and party identification? To examine this question, we draw on a rare quasi-natural experiment that occurred when The Sun, a right-leaning UK tabloid, shifted its support to the Labour party in 1997 and back to the Conservative party in 2010. We compared changes in party identification and political attitudes among Sun readers with non-readers and other newspaper readerships. We find that The Sun's endorsements were associated with a significant increase in readers' support for Labour in 1997, approximately 525,000 votes, and its switch back was associated with about 550,000 extra votes for the Conservatives in 2010. Although we observed changes in readers' party preference, there was no effect on underlying political preferences. The magnitude of these changes, about 2% of the popular vote, would have been unable to alter the outcome of the 1997 General Election, but may have affected the 2010 Election
The attack on universal health coverage in Europe: recession, austerity and unmet needs.
Full text linkMore than 1.5 million extra people have unmet need for healthcare since the beginning of the economic crisis in Europe. The advent of the Great Recession has placed Europe’s health systems under severe pressure, with real terms cuts to funding in many countries. 1 Accounts in the peer-reviewed literature and popular media have catalogued examples of vulnerable groups and individuals unable to access necessary care. 2 Although there have been case-studies of Spain, Greece and other individual nations, 3 to our knowledge there has been no systematic attempt to quantify changes in unmet need for medical care across the European Union. Here, using data from the EU-wide Statistics of Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC), we quantify the increase in self-reported unmet need, a comparative measure of healthcare access defined as being unable to obtain care when people believed it to be medically necessary, in association with the Great Recessio
The impacts of job loss and job recovery on self-rated health: testing the mediating role of financial strain and income.
No full textBACKGROUND: Is regaining a job sufficient to reverse the harmful impacts on health of job loss during the Great Recession? We tested whether unemployed persons who found work within 1 year of job loss experienced a full recovery of their health. Additionally, we tested the mediating role of financial strain and household income. METHODS: Linear regression models were used to assess the effects of job loss and recovery on self-rated health using the longitudinal EU-SILC, covering individuals from 27 European countries. We constructed a baseline of employed persons (n = 70 611) in year 2007. We evaluated income and financial strain as potential mediating factors. RESULTS: Job loss was associated with worse self-rated health in both men (β = 0.12, 95%CI: 0.09-0.15) and women (β = 0.13, 95%CI: 0.10-0.16). Financial strain explains about one-third of the association between job loss and health, but income did not mediate this relation. Women who regained employment within 1 year after job loss were found to be similarly healthy to those who did not lose jobs. In contrast, men whose employment recovered had an enduring health disadvantage compared with those who had not lost jobs (β = 0.11, 95%CI: 0.05-0.16). Unemployment cash benefits mitigated financial strain but were too low to substantially reduce perceived financial strain among men. CONCLUSIONS: Men and women's health appears to suffer equally from job loss but differs in recovery. For men, employment recovery was insufficient to alleviate financial strain and associated health consequences, whereas in women regaining employment leads to health recovery
Greece's health crisis: from austerity to denialism.
No full textGreece's economic crisis has deepened since it was bailed out by the international community in 2010. The country underwent the sixth consecutive year of economic contraction in 2013, with its economy shrinking by 20% between 2008 and 2012, and anaemic or no growth projected for 2014. Unemployment has more than tripled, from 7·7% in 2008 to 24·3% in 2012, and long-term unemployment reached 14·4%. We review the background to the crisis, assess how austerity measures have affected the health of the Greek population and their access to public health services, and examine the political response to the mounting evidence of a Greek public health tragedy
Reeves et al. Respond to "Harnessing Housing Natural Experiments".
Full text linkWe appreciate the interest our study (1), which took advantage of a natural experiment design to better ascertain causality than conventional observational studies could, has generated. In their accompanying commentary, Bentley et al. (2) suggest that misclassification of depression symptoms (e.g., someone with depression reporting that they are not depressed) may explain our findings if misclassification rates changed due to the reduction in the Local Housing Allowance, one component of the United Kingdom's Housing Benefit (HB) for people in the private rental sector.
Misclassification can bias estimated effects in 2 ways. First, if misclassification is nondifferential over time, it will dilute associations, tending to underestimate effect sizes. This is likely to result from measurement error. Second, differential misclassification can impact the direction of findings. This can occur, for example, if the reduction in the HB itself leads to changes in how people report symptoms of depression. This is what Bentley et al. suggest may have happened and generated a spurious correlation
The enduring influence of institutions on universal health coverage: an empirical investigation of 62 former colonies
Full text linkIn this paper, we argue that particular institutional arrangements partly explain the large and persistent differences in health systems and health outcomes observed in former colonies. Drawing on data from the World Health Organization for 62 countries, covering the period 2000–2014, we explore whether economic (risk of expropriation) and health (complete cause of death registries) institutions explain mortality rates and access to healthcare. To identify this relationship, we use settler mortality and the distance of the capital from the nearest major port – factors associated with institutional arrangements – to explain cross-national variation in health outcomes and the universality of health systems. We find that inclusive institutions arrangements – that protect and acknowledge the rights of citizens – are associated with better health outcomes (e.g. lower infant mortality and lower maternal mortality) as well as with better health systems (e.g. more skilled birth attendance and greater immunization). Inclusive institutions not only foster economic growth but improve health and well-being too
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