Health and health behaviours before and during the Great Recession, overall and by socioeconomic status, using data from four repeated cross-sectional health surveys in Spain (2001–2012)

BMC Public Health

Research Article

Carme Borrell¹  Xavier Bartoll²  Laia Palència³  Davide Malmusi³  Marc Suhrcke⁴  Veronica Toffolutti⁵ 

[1] Agència de Salut Pública de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain;CIBER Epidemiología y Salud Pública (CIBERESP), Barcelona, Spain;Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain;Institute of Biomedical Research (IIB-Sant Pau), Barcelona, Spain;Agència de Salut Pública de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain;Institute of Biomedical Research (IIB-Sant Pau), Barcelona, Spain;CIBER Epidemiología y Salud Pública (CIBERESP), Barcelona, Spain;Agència de Salut Pública de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain;Institute of Biomedical Research (IIB-Sant Pau), Barcelona, Spain;Centre for Health Economics, University of York, York, United Kingdom;Centre for Diet and Activity Research (CEDAR), Institute of Public Health, Cambridge, United Kingdom;Health Economics Group, Norwich Medical School, University of East Anglia, Norwich, United Kingdom;

关键词: Health Behaviour;    Socioeconomic Inequality;    Economic Recession;    Great Recession;    Sweet Food;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12889-015-2204-5

 received in 2014-10-21, accepted in 2015-09-01,  发布年份 2015

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundThe objective of this study was to estimate changes over time in health status and selected health behaviours during the Great Recession, in the period 2011/12, in Spain, both overall, and according to socioeconomic position and gender.MethodsWe applied a before-after estimation on data from four editions of the Spanish National Health Survey: 2001, 2003/04, 2006/07 and 2011/12. This involved applying linear probability regression models accounting for time-trends and with robust standard errors, using as outcomes self-reported health and health behaviours, and as the main explanatory variable a dummy “Great Recession” for the 2011/12 survey edition. All the computations were run separately by gender. The final sample consisted of 47,156 individuals aged between 25 and 64 years, economically active at the time of the interview. We also assessed the inequality of the effects across socio-economic groups.ResultsThe probability of good self-reported health increased for women (men) by 9.6 % (7.6 %) in 2011/12, compared to the long term trend. The changes are significant for all educational levels, except for the least educated. Some healthy behaviours also improved but results were rather variable. Adverse dietary changes did, however, occur among men (though not women) who were unemployed (e.g., the probability of declaring eating fruit daily changed by −12.1 %), and among both men (−21.8 %) and women with the lowest educational level (−15.1 %).ConclusionsSocioeconomic inequalities in health and health behaviour have intensified, in the period 2011/12, in at least some respects, especially regarding diet. While average self-reported health status and some health behaviours improved during the economic recession, in 2011/12, this improvement was unequal across different socioeconomic groups.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© Bartoll et al. 2015