TIIH Scholar Kaplan on Economic Crises, Long-Term Health Effects and Public Policy
Institute Scholar George Kaplan, PhD, presented the opening keynote at a Royal Society of Medicine conference in London, September 23, 2010, on “Health, Wealth and Ways of Life.” Referring to his data-rich talk as “a tale of three countries,” Dr. Kaplan laid out recent economic and health statistics from the US, the UK and Sweden, suggesting possible long-term global implications of economic crisis for population health.
Kaplan chart shows recessionary plunge in GDP for US, UK and Sweden
Showing a range of correlations between employment, income, education, neighborhood, and healthcare access on the one hand, and illness and death on the other, Dr. Kaplan noted that, while there are plausible connections between economic status and health, we don’t know whether the same causes are at play across different countries. Moreover, we don’t know, he said, “whether social and economic policy differences between these countries can make a difference in the impact of economic crises on health.”
With that question in mind, Dr. Kaplan explored the potential effects of national spending patterns on health-related factors such as child poverty, neighborhoods, education, and healthcare access. Comparing statistics from the three countries, he offered, “Nationally and perhaps locally, policies can potentially mitigate the effect of economic crises on education, neighborhoods and access to medical care [and] lessen the burden associated with unemployment, burdens that are economic, social and also psychosocial.”
His full presentation, with slides, may be found here.
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