Lingering Impact of Starting Working Life During a Recession: Health Outcomes of Survivors of the "Employment Ice Age" (1993-2004) in Japan.

Takashi Oshio

doi:10.2188/jea.je20190121

Abstract

BackgroundA growing amount of evidence demonstrates the adverse impacts of economic downturns on population health. However, the extent to which the macroeconomic conditions at labor market entry affect health outcomes in later life remains relatively understudied. This study focused on the health outcomes of the cohort who entered the labor market during the “employment ice age” (EIA; 1993–2004) in Japan, when young people had difficulty finding jobs after graduating from college or high school.MethodsWe used repeated cross-sectional data (N = 3,054,782; 1,500,618 men and 1,554,164 women) obtained from an 11-wave population-based nationwide survey conducted every 3 years from 1986 through 2016. We considered three health outcomes: being in hospital, subjective symptoms, and self-rated health (SRH). We employed two types of statistical analyses: an age-period-cohort (APC) analysis, which controlled for age and period (wave) effects, and a difference-in-differences (DiD) analysis, in which the EIA experience was regarded as a treatment.ResultsThe APC analysis confirmed the relative disadvantage of the EIA cohort for all three outcomes; for instance, the odds ratio of poor SRH for the EIA cohort was 1.29 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.21–1.38) for men and 1.25 (95% CI, 1.17–1.34) for women. The DiD analysis confirmed the robustness of these results, especially for men.ConclusionsThe results underscored the lingering impact of the macroeconomic conditions at labor market entry on health outcomes in later life in Japan.

Highlights

A growing amount of evidence has demonstrated the adverse impact of macroeconomic downturns on population health
Studies have shown that the Great Recession (2008–2009) associated with the global financial crisis had negative effects on mental health, mortality, self-rated health (SRH), and other health outcomes.[1,2,3,4]
We focused on health outcomes of the cohort that entered labor force during the employment ice age” (EIA)

Summary

Introduction

A growing amount of evidence has demonstrated the adverse impact of macroeconomic downturns on population health. Most preceding studies have compared population health during the pre- and post-crisis periods or focused on changes in population health during the crisis,[12,13] leaving the lingering impact of the economic crisis largely understudied. Difficulties in finding good jobs during the recession upon graduating from college and high school may have long-lasting adverse impacts on health in later life. A growing amount of evidence demonstrates the adverse impacts of economic downturns on population health. This study focused on the health outcomes of the cohort who entered the labor market during the “employment ice age” (EIA; 1993–2004) in Japan, when young people had difficulty finding jobs after graduating from college or high school

Methods

Results

Conclusion