ArticleJournal of epidemiology and community health2008
Economic recession and health inequalities in Japan: analysis with a national sample, 1986-2001.
Article in Journal of epidemiology and community health, 2008. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 55 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
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Who cites it
55 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 148 citations in OpenAlex.
- The 2008 Financial Crisis and Changes in Lifestyle-Related Behaviors in Italy, Greece, Spain, and Portugal: A Systematic Review.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Pooled it
- Mental health outcomes in times of economic recession: a systematic literature review.BMC public health · 2016Pooled it
- A systematic review on health resilience to economic crises.PloS one · 2015Pooled it
- Socioeconomic disparities and health: impacts and pathways.Journal of epidemiology · 2012Pooled it
- Socioeconomic status and self-reported health among middle-aged Japanese men: results from a nationwide longitudinal study.BMJ open · 2015Trial
- Trends in income-related concentration and inequality in health in Japan: evidence from population-based National surveys from 2001 to 2022.Population health metrics · 2025Article
- Economic recession and mental health distress among Japanese people in middle age.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Socioeconomic inequalities in self-rated health in Japan, 32 European countries and the United States: an international comparative study.Scandinavian journal of public health · 2023Article
- Effects of the Great Recession on Educational Disparities in Cardiometabolic Health.Annals of behavioral medicine : a publication of the Society of Behavioral Medicine · 2022Article
- Culture and Health: Recent Developments and Future Directions.The Japanese psychological research · 2022Article
- Trends and socioeconomic inequalities in self-rated health in Japan, 1986-2016.BMC public health · 2021Article
- Mortality risks among blue- and white-collar workers: A time series study among Japanese men aged 25-64 years from 1980 to 2015.Journal of occupational health · 2021Article
- Assessing health outcomes in the aftermath of the great recession: a comparison of Spain and the Netherlands.International journal for equity in health · 2020Article
- Impact of self-reported bank fraud on self-rated health, comorbidity and pain.International journal of public health · 2020Article
- Association between Cardiovascular Mortality and Economic Development: A Spatio-Temporal Study for Prefectures in Japan.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2020Article
- 36-year trends in educational inequalities in self-rated health among Finnish adults.SSM - population health · 2019Article
- Health-related quality of life in adult population before and after the onset of financial crisis: the case of Athens, Greece.Quality of life research : an international journal of quality of life aspects of treatment, care and rehabilitation · 2019Article
- The impact of uncertainty in society on the use of traditional, complementary and alternative medicine: a comparative study on visits to alternative/traditional/folk health care practitioners.BMC complementary and alternative medicine · 2019Article
- Suicide Mortality Patterns in Greek Work Force before and during the Economic Crisis.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2019Article
- Is recession bad for your mental health? The answer could be complex: evidence from the 2008 crisis in Spain.BMC medical research methodology · 2018Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveLittle is known about whether economic crises widen health inequalities. Japan experienced more than 10 years of economic recession beginning in the 1990s. The question of whether socioeconomic-based inequality in self-rated health widened after the economic crisis was examined. DESIGN, SETTING AND
participantsRepeated cross-sectional survey design. Two pooled datasets from 1986 and 1989 and from 1998 and 2001 were analysed separately, and temporal change was examined. The study took place in Japan among the working-age population (20-60 years old). The two surveys consisted of 168 801 and 150 016 people, respectively, with about an 80% response rate.
resultsThe absolute percentages of people reporting poor health declined across all socioeconomic statuses following the crisis. However, after controlling for confounding factors, the odds ratio (OR) for poor self-rated health (95% confidence intervals) among middle-class non-manual workers (clerical/sales/service workers) compared with the highest class workers (managers/administrators) was 1.02 (0.92 to 1.14) before the crisis but increased to 1.14 (1.02 to 1.29) after the crisis (p for temporal change = 0.02). The association was stronger among males. The adjusted ORs among professional workers and young female homemakers also marginally increased over time. Unemployed people were twice as likely to report poor health compared with the highest class workers throughout the period. Self-rated health of people with middle to higher incomes deteriorated in relative terms following the crisis compared with that of lower income people.
conclusionsSelf-rated health improved in absolute terms for all occupational groups even after the economic recession. However, the relative disparity increased between the top and middle occupational groups in men.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.