Influence of Economic Instability on Health: Proceedings of a Symposium Organized by the Gesellschaft Für Strahlen- Und Umweltforschung, Institut Für

ISBN-13: 9783540122746 / Angielski / Miękka / 1983 / 529 str.

J. John; D. Schwefel; H. Zallner

Opis

The worldwide economic recession of the last years - sometimes described as an outright depression similar to the one of the early thirties - has led many health policy analysts and even policy makers to revive the old question of whether, and in what respect, there is a close relationship between economic development and health. In tackling this question, to- day's health services research looks rather helpless: even if a truth has the appearance of a truism, it will not necessarily be aCknowledged in practice. While it is an established fact that social as well as (macro)economic conditions or events have an important influence on the health of people, this subject has been rarely pursued by medical or epidemiological research and rather has been treated - in industrial countries at least - as a quantit n gligeable. Yet, this ahistoric and even parochial attitude must be questioned on methodological as well as political grounds. - As to methodological aspects, further investigation into the relation- ship between health and the economy is essential in order to identify the real relevance, i. e. opportunity costs, of medical care; even more important, it might also direct attention to the interfaces - fairly neglected by our over-specialized system of sciences - between biome- tries and econometrics, medicine and epidemiology, epidemiology and socio-economics. It is, hence, an area of research from which methodo- l09iCa-l development can receive' major stimuli.

Spis treści

Influence of economic instability on health. Report on the Symposium.- 1 Recent empirical research: Aggregate-level analysis.- Mortality and economic instability: Detailed analyses for Britain.- Socio-economic change and mortality — a multivariate coherency analysis of Danish time series.- Economic instability and mortality in the Federal Republic of Germany. Problems of macroanalytical approach with special reference to migration.- An attempt to analyse some dependences between economic and health status in Poland in the years 1959–1979.- Unemployment, nutrition and infant mortality in Britain, 1920–1950.- Involuntary unemployment and health status: A regional case study utilising sociological and micro-epidemiological perspectives.- 2 Recent empirical research: Individual-level analysis.- The health effects of economic instability: A test of the economic stress hypothesis.- Health problems and psycho-social strains of unemployed. A summary of recent empirical research in the Federal Republic of Germany.- Unemployment: A psychiatric problem as well?.- Economic deprivation, work orientation and health conceptual ideas and some empirical findings.- Unemployment and life-style changes.- Strategies of research on economic instability and health.- Methodological problems in the measurement of health consequences of unemployment in sample surveys.- 3 Further research: Proposals and strategy.- Unemployment, the unemployed, and health. An analysis of the Dutch situation.- Prevalence of unemployment amongst those becoming ill.- Proposed research on the effects of unemployment on health in Scunthorpe.- Outline of a study on the immediate and longterm ill-effects of a plant shutdown in a rural community.- Some suggestions for future research on economic instability and health.- Recession & health — a research strategy.- The effects of unemployment on health and public awareness of this in the Federal Republic of Germany.- Study on the influence of economic development on health. Report on the WHO Planning Meeting.- List of participants/authors.- Acknowledgements.