People are losing jobs and money but they're healthier than before.
So says economics professor Chris Ruhm from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. In this interview , Ruhm says people eat healthier and exercise more during recessions. It's an historical trend, he says.
"When you feel powerless, you want to control other pieces of your life, so you take steps to get healthier," Ruhm says. "A one percent increase in the unemployment rate reduces mortality rates by half a percent. Heart attacks decrease by slightly less than half a percent. Traffic deaths decline by 3 percent because fewer people are commuting and drinking is down. There are fewer smokers, too, which will have a big impact on mortality rates in the long term."
Still, he concedes that the effects might be different this time if the economic malaise is worse than we have ever seen before. But he's not sure.
So in boom times, people are fat and happy. Now, they're just fit and miserable. It also comes as no suprise to see the number of people filing a compensation claim rise dramatically during a recession…
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