Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, King's College London, London, United Kingdom.
Department of Public Health, Erasmus University Medical Center, Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
Am J Epidemiol. 2018 Jul 1;187(7):1438-1448. doi: 10.1093/aje/kwy001.
Economic recessions have been linked to adult health, but few studies have examined how recessions influence the health of young children. This study examined the impact of life transitions linked to the recent financial crisis on the health of young children in Ireland. Data came from the Growing Up in Ireland Infant Cohort Study (n = 11,134), which assessed children before (2008), during (2011), and after (2013) the Great Recession that followed the financial crisis of 2008 and incorporated questions on the impacts of the financial crisis on families. Using fixed-effects models to control for confounding, we found that a reduction in welfare benefits during the recession was associated with a significant increase in the risks of asthma (β = 0.014, 95% confidence interval (95% CI): 0.004, 0.023) and atopy (β = 0.014, 95% CI: 0.001, 0.027). While parental job loss was not associated with child health, a reduction in working hours was associated with increased reports of child health problems (β = 0.024, 95% CI: 0.004, 0.043), as were difficulties affording basic necessities (β = 0.019, 95% CI: 0.001, 0.038). Results suggest that failing to protect vulnerable families and children during economic recessions may have long-lasting implications for child health.
经济衰退与成年人的健康有关，但很少有研究探讨经济衰退如何影响幼儿的健康。本研究考察了与最近的金融危机相关的生活转变对爱尔兰幼儿健康的影响。数据来自爱尔兰婴幼儿队列研究（n = 11,134），该研究在大衰退（2008 年金融危机之后）之前（2008 年）、期间（2011 年）和之后（2013 年）评估了儿童的健康状况，并纳入了关于金融危机对家庭影响的问题。我们使用固定效应模型来控制混杂因素，发现经济衰退期间福利减少与哮喘（β=0.014，95%置信区间（95%CI）：0.004，0.023）和过敏（β=0.014，95%CI：0.001，0.027）风险显著增加有关。虽然父母失业与儿童健康无关，但工作时间减少与儿童健康问题报告增加有关（β=0.024，95%CI：0.004，0.043），难以负担基本生活必需品也与儿童健康问题增加有关（β=0.019，95%CI：0.001，0.038）。结果表明，在经济衰退期间未能保护弱势家庭和儿童可能对儿童健康产生持久影响。
