title: Patterns of life expectancy before and during economic recession, 2003-12: a European regions panel approach.
abstract: Previous research has reported a decrease in all-cause mortality during times of economic recession. Our objective was to identify the short-term effects of the current Great Recession on life expectancy at birth in Europe, and the role of social protection typology, income and gender.
  
  
  
  We used a pooled time series cross-sectional design, with 232 European regions (level 2 of the Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics) as the unit of analysis over 10 years (2003-12). The dependent variable was life expectancy at birth, and the independent variable was unemployment rate. We fit a model in first differences for the periods before and during the Great Recession (2003-07 and 2008-12, respectively), and stratified by sex, social protection typology (Eastern, Mediterranean and Northern) and regional income per capita RESULTS: We observed a negative association during the Great Recession between life expectancy (in years) and in unit change in unemployment among men and women in low-income Mediterranean regions [-0.048(95%CI: -0.081,-0.014) and -0.050(95%CI:-0.091,-0.007), respectively] but no change in trend, and a change in trend to a non-significant negative association among men in high-income Mediterranean and Northern regions (P = 0.005 and P = 0.002, respectively). We also observed a positive association among men in middle-income Mediterranean regions [0.044 (95%CI:0.004,0.084)], with change in trend (P = 0.047), and Eastern regions [0.042 (95%CI:0.001,0.072)] without change in trend.
  
  
  
  Overall, our data do not support the notion that increased life expectancy is associated with unemployment during the Great Recession.
authors.affiliation: Agència de Salut Pública de Barcelona, Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain xbartoll@aspb.cat.|Institut d'Investigació Biomèdica (IIB Sant Pau), Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Xavier
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Bartoll
authors.affiliation: Agència de Salut Pública de Barcelona, Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.|Institut d'Investigació Biomèdica (IIB Sant Pau), Barcelona, Spain.|CIBER of Epidemiology and Public Health (CIBERESP), Spain.
authors.forename: Marc
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Marí-Dell'Olmo
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D057172:Economic Recession / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005060:Europe; D005260:Female; D005544:Forecasting; D006801:Humans; D008017:Life Expectancy / Q000639:trends*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D014478:Unemployment / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D055815:Young Adult