title: The health effects of economic insecurity.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Interest in the health and behavioral effects of economic insecurity appears to vary with the performance of the economy. The current recession in the United States and Western Europe and growing unemployment in Eastern Europe make it timely to analytically review the recent research concerned with the health effects of economic contraction.
  
  
  METHODS
  The research concerned with the health and behavioral effects of economic insecurity is organized by dependent variable and method. Rules for determining which effects are supported by strong and which by weak evidence are developed and applied to the literature.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Evidence for effects on symptoms of psychological distress, seeking help for psychological distress, and nonspecific physiological illness is strong. Evidence for effects on suicide, child abuse, adverse birth outcomes, and heart disease is characterized as weak or sufficiently controversial to warrant skepticism.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The health effects of economic security are undoubtedly mediated by economic policies. Estimating the effect of policy alternatives on the incidence of various outcomes is, however, very difficult given the current state of the research. The effect of rising unemployment on health in Eastern Europe cannot, moreover, be estimated from existing research. Effects estimated from Western economies probably do not generalize to situations in which the meaning of economic insecurity is conditioned by profound social and political reforms.
authors.affiliation: School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley 94720.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Catalano
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D002649:Child Abuse / Q000209:etiology; D004194:Disease / Q000209:etiology; D004467:Economics / Q000639:trends*; D005060:Europe; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007226:Infant Mortality; D013405:Suicide; D014478:Unemployment / Q000523:psychology*; D014481:United States