La Dolce Vita in times of harshness: Prevalence of health-related behaviors during the great recession in Italy

Elena Castellari (), Giulia Tiboldo, Daniele Moro and Francesco Bimbo

Economics & Human Biology, 2021, vol. 43, issue C

Abstract: The current work investigates the heterogeneous effect of the 2008 recession on health outcomes in the Italian population across the main geographic areas. Health outcomes were proxied by individual-level information on healthy/risky behaviors, such as individual fruit and vegetable consumption, frequency of bodyweight monitoring, smoking, and alcohol intake. These health outcomes were employed as dependent variables in the empirical model that included some socioeconomic individual aspects (e.g., age, gender, education, and income source), as well as consumer price index data for tobacco products, alcoholic beverages, and fruit and vegetables. In this work, we used twelve years of data (2005–2016) from the Italian Multipurpose Household Survey (MHS), which collects individual self-reported characteristics, augmented with information on unemployment rates at the regional level, as well as with consumer price indexes for the goods analyzed. The results indicated that the 2008 economic crisis lowered the probability that individuals engage in healthy behaviors, such as self-monitoring their bodyweight, mostly among individuals in northern and central areas. Likewise, the economic downturn increased the probability of smoking regardless of the geographic area, with a larger magnitude in individuals in northern and central areas, whose health outcomes were more impacted by the economic downturn than individuals living in the southern and island areas.

Keywords: Economic recession; Health-related behaviors; Health inequalities; Public policy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D1 E32 I12 I14 I18 J1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ehbiol:v:43:y:2021:i:c:s1570677x21000873

DOI: 10.1016/j.ehb.2021.101062

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