Health, wartime stress, and unit cohesion: evidence from Union Army veterans.
We find that Union Army veterans of the American Civil War who faced greater wartime stress (as measured by higher battlefield mortality rates) experienced higher mortality rates at older ages, but that men who were from more cohesive companies were statistically significantly less likely to be affected by wartime stress. Our results hold for overall mortality, mortality from ischemic heart disease and stroke, and new diagnoses of arteriosclerosis. Our findings represent one of the first long-run health follow-ups of the interaction between stress and social networks in a human population in which both stress and social networks are arguably exogenous.
Costa
Dora L
DL
UCLA Department of Economics, 9272 Bunche Hall, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1477, USA. costa@econ.ucla.edu
Kahn
Matthew E
ME
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D047831:American Civil War; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000266:history / Q000401:mortality; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003130:Combat Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000266:history*; D049672:History, 19th Century; D006801:Humans; D008136:Longevity; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008889:Military Personnel / Q000266:history* / Q000523:psychology; D009013:Morale; D009026:Mortality; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012306:Risk; D012944:Social Support; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000266:history*; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D014728:Veterans / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000401:mortality