Wealth and health

Human lifespan in the developed world has been increasing continually for over a century, driven by steady medical advances coupled with, among other factors, improvements in diet and lifestyle on the back of rising prosperity. But this last part has a corollary: there must be some downward pressure on lifespan during times of declining prosperity. Indeed, some experts worry that mortality might increase, at least temporarily, in some countries where economies have collapsed as a result of the credit crunch. Such fears seem well grounded given recent historical experiences such as the marked fall in life expectancy in some of the former Soviet States immediately after the collapse of communism. One well-studied case has been Kazakhstan where a rapid rise in mortality during the sharp economic deterio ration in the early 1990s was followed by a tentative recovery in health and life expectancy as conditions improved after 1995 (Becker & Urzhumova, 2005).