首页
登录
职称英语
Are Bad Economic Times Good for Health?[A] Most people are worr
Are Bad Economic Times Good for Health?[A] Most people are worr
游客
2023-06-28
40
管理
问题
Are Bad Economic Times Good for Health?
[A] Most people are worried about the health of the economy. But does the economy also affect your health? It does, but not always in ways you might expect. The data on how an economic downturn influences an individual’s health are surprisingly mixed. It’s clear that long-term economic gains lead to improvements in a population’s overall health, in developing and industrialized societies alike.
[B] But whether the current economic downturn will take a toll on your own health depends, in part, on your health habits when times are good. And economic studies suggest that people tend not to take care of themselves in boom times—drinking too much (especially before driving), dining on fat-filled restaurant meals and skipping exercise and doctors’ appointments because of work-related time commitments.
[C] "The value of time is higher during good economic times," said Grant Miller, an assistant professor of medicine at Stanford. "So people work more and do less of the things that are good for them, like cooking at home and exercising: and people experience more stress due to the severity of hard work during booms."
[D] Similar patterns have been seen in some developing nations. Dr. Miller, who is studying the effects of fluctuating coffee prices on health in Colombia, says that even though falling prices are bad for the economy, they appear to improve health and decrease death rates. When prices are low, laborers have more time to care for their children. "When coffee prices suddenly rise, people work harder on their coffee plots and spend less time doing things around the home, including things that are good for their children," he said. "Because the things that matter most for infant and child health in rural Colombia aren’t expensive, but require a substantial amount of time—such as breast-feeding, bringing clean water from far away, taking your child to a distant health clinic for free vaccinations (接种疫苗) —infant and child death rates rise."
[E] In this country, a similar effect appeared in the Dust Bowl during the Great Depression, according to a 2007 paper by Dr. Miller and colleagues in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The data seem to contradict research in the 1970s suggesting that in hard times there are more deaths from heart disease, cirrhosis (肝硬化), suicide and murder, as well as more admissions to mental hospitals. But those findings have not been repeated, and several economists have pointed out flaws in the research.
[F] In May 2000, the Quarterly Journal of Economics published a surprising paper called "Are Recessions Good for Your Health?" by Christopher J. Ruhm, professor of economics at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro, based on an analysis measuring death rates and health behavior against economic shifts and jobless rates from 1972 to 1991. Dr. Ruhm found that death rates declined sharply in the 1974 and 1982 recessions, and increased in the economic recovery of the 1980s. An increase of one percentage point in state unemployment rates correlated with a 0.5 percentage point decline in the death rate—or about 5 fewer deaths per 100,000 people. Over all, the death rate fell by more than 8 percent in the 20-year period of mostly economic decline, led by drops in heart disease and car crashes.
[G] The economic downturn did appear to take a toll on factors having less to do with prevention and more to do with mental well-being and access to health care. For instance, cancer deaths rose 23 percent, and deaths from flu and pneumonia increased slightly. Suicides rose 2 percent, homicides 12 percent.
[H] The issue that may matter most in an economic crisis is not related to jobs or income, but whether the slump widens the gap between rich and poor, and whether there is an adequate health safety net available to those who have lost their jobs and insurance. During a decade of economic recession in Japan that began in the 1990s, people who were unemployed were twice as likely to be in poor health as those with secure jobs. During Peru’s severe economic crisis in the 1980s, infant deaths jumped 2.5 percentage points—about 17,000 more children who died as public health spending and social programs collapsed.
[I] In August, researchers from the Free University of Amsterdam looked at health studies of twins in Denmark. They found that individuals bom in a recession were at higher risk for heart problems later in life and lived, on average, 15 months less than those born under better conditions. Gerard J. van den Berg, an economics professor who was a co-author of the study, said babies in poor households suffered the most in a recession, because their families lacked access to good health care. Poor economic conditions can also cause stress that may interfere with parent bonding and childhood development, he said. He noted that other studies had found that recessions can benefit babies by giving their parents more time at home.
[J] "This scenario (情况) may be relevant for well-to-do families where one of the parents loses a job and the other still brings in enough money," he said. "But in a crisis where the family may have to face huge housing-cost losses and the household income is insufficient for adequate nutrition and health care, the disadvantageous effects of being born in a recession seem much more relevant."
[K] In the USA, there are already signs of the economy’s effect on health. In May, the market research firm Information Resources reported that 53 percent of consumers said they were cooking more than they did just six months before—in part, no doubt, because of the rising cost of prepared foods. At the same time, health insurance costs are rising. With premiums and co-payments, the average employee with insurance pays nearly one-third of medical costs—about twice as much as four years ago, according to Paul H. Keckley, executive director of the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions.
[L] In the United States, which unlike other industrialized nations lacks a national health plan, the looming recession may take a greater toll. About 46 million Americans lack health insurance, Dr. Keckley says, and even among the 179 million who have it, an estimated 1 in 7 would be bankrupted by a single health crisis. The economic downturn "is not good news for the health care industry," he said. "There may be something positive, but I think this needs pondering." [br] During the decade of recession in Japan, compared with those with secure jobs, the unemployed were more likely to fall ill.
选项
答案
H
解析
题目谈到日本失业人员的健康状况。文中只有H段提到日本,该段第2句表示日本在上世纪90年代,经济衰退的十年间,失业人员健康状况不佳的可能性是有稳定工作的人的2倍,twice as likely to be in poor health表明失业的人更容易生病,这与题目语义相同,故H段为本题出处。
转载请注明原文地址:https://tihaiku.com/zcyy/2791273.html
相关试题推荐
Nearly5,000peoplebelowtheageof21diebecauseofexcessivealcoholcon
Nearly5,000peoplebelowtheageof21diebecauseofexcessivealcoholcon
[originaltext]Somekindsofmentalskillsnaturallydecreaseaspeopleget
[originaltext]Somekindsofmentalskillsnaturallydecreaseaspeopleget
[originaltext]W:IthoughtIwasspeakingEnglishfairlywell,butpeoplekeep
[originaltext]W:IthoughtIwasspeakingEnglishfairlywell,butpeoplekeep
[originaltext]W:IthoughtIwasspeakingEnglishfairlywell,butpeoplekeep
[originaltext]W:IthoughtIwasspeakingEnglishfairlywell,butpeoplekeep
[originaltext]W:IthoughtIwasspeakingEnglishfairlywell,butpeoplekeep
[originaltext]W:IthoughtIwasspeakingEnglishfairlywell,butpeoplekeep
随机试题
Beforethedisastrousearthquaketherewas_____chaos.A、massiveB、ominousC、suspe
Check-inRequirementsPassengersandtheirbaggagemustbecheckedinatlea
[originaltext]Larryarrivedearlyforhisspeakingengagement.Hepositione
旅行社服务网点的设立是有地域限制的。根据规定,旅行社可以在其所在地的省、自治区、
医务人员根据确定的医学行为目标,拟订多个诊疗方案,然后从中选出达到最佳诊疗效果的
证券公司应当将子公司的风险管理纳入统一体系,子公司风险管理工作负责人应由证券公司
患儿,5岁。颌下有肿块,形似鸡卵,皮肤焮红灼热,肿势高突,压痛明显,按之中软,有
以下不属于新课程提倡的学习方式是()A、自主学习B、合作学习 C、发现学习
阅读下面的材料,根据要求写作。 古人说得好:“善学者,师安逸而功倍。”“不善学
逻辑思维在创造中不具备的作用是()。 A.发现问题B.分析事物内部矛盾
最新回复
(
0
)