The effects of the recession on the health of the people in two underprivileged areas of Oldham

Abstract

There is a well-established association between unemployment and ill health. There is scope for discussion about the causality of the relationship, but the subject has been reviewed by the Unemployment and Health Study Group ~ which has concluded that causality is established in relation to mental health and that in relation to physical health the evidence is sufficient that, although there is still scope for some academic discussion, it would be unreasonable to base policy on any proposition other than that unemployment damages health. The group has also suggested policy approaches. As a preliminary approach to documenting the intervening factors that mediate this relationship, a study was conducted in two underprivileged areas of Oldham in 1985. The study had a number of objectives and was aimed at identifying the effects of the recession upon the lives and health of the people in the two areas. It comprised three main comparisons: between people's lives and health now, and their lives and health before the recession, between the lives and health of the employed and unemployed members of the sample, and between various characteristics of unemployed people by whether or not their health had deteriorated during unemployment. The study arose out of a wish to document the effects of the recession upon the lives of ordinary people, and especially those aspects of their lives which are likely to affect their health. It was conceived, and planned, by an unemployed person (the first author), and was carried out with the assistance of unemployed volunteers as interviewers. Support was provided by the health authority, the Borough Council and a local resource centre. The Oldham Resources and Information Centre provided administrative help in organising the volunteers, Oldham Health Authori ty provided advice from a community physician on epidemiological techniques, and Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council provided a grant of £600 to cover travelling and out-of-pocket expenses for the volunteers. The Borough Council, the Manchester Diocesan Board of Social Responsibility, and the Unemployment and Health Study Group jointly provided a further £200 to allow the principal researcher to accept an invitation to attend, as a temporary adviser, a World Health Organisation conference in Yugoslavia. The fact that the data collection was performed by unemployed people studying their own locality was particularly valuable in breaking down barriers between researchers and subjects. A negative feature is that inexperienced interviewers were sometimes too ready to