As well as the short-term health impacts of stress due to the credit crunch, the financial crisis seems to be having a longer-term impact on health in the form of increased levels of smoking. According to a survey of over 2,000 people, a quarter of smokers who are worried about the economy said that their worries were making them smoke more, and a further 13 percent said they have delayed giving up.
The effect was more pronounced among women – 31% of women smokers reported that they were more likely to smoke more due to worries about the economy, compared to 17 percent of male smokers – and lower-income smokers and the unemployed also reported that they are smoking more.
This increase in tobacco use demonstrates the particular importance of ensuring that public health remains a high priority – for example, smoking-cessation schemes organised through the workplace – and the centrality of addressing the social determinants of health.
Source: Reuters, 10 November 2008.