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Related Concept Videos

Applications of Life Tables01:22

Applications of Life Tables

Life tables are versatile across various fields, providing a quantitative basis for analyzing mortality and survival rates. Whether used by demographers, actuaries, epidemiologists, or sociologists, life tables offer valuable insights into the dynamics of life and death, facilitating informed decisions in public health, insurance, conservation, and beyond. Their broad applicability highlights the interconnectedness of demographic data with practical outcomes in everyday life and strategic...
Life Tables01:22

Life Tables

A life table is a statistical tool that summarizes the mortality and survival patterns of a population, providing detailed insights into the likelihood of survival or death across different age intervals within a cohort. By organizing data on survival probabilities and mortality rates, life tables offer a clear snapshot of population dynamics over time. They are extensively used in demography, public health, actuarial science, and ecology to analyze life expectancy, design health interventions,...
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The actuarial approach, a statistical method originally developed for life insurance risk assessment, is widely used to calculate survival rates in clinical and population studies. This method accounts for participants lost to follow-up or those who die from causes unrelated to the study, ensuring a more accurate representation of survival probabilities.
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Business cycles and mortality in Italy.

Adriano Ruggiero1, María Cervini-Plá2

  • 1Department of Economics and Finance, University of Bari "A. Moro", Bari, Italy.

The European Journal of Health Economics : HEPAC : Health Economics in Prevention and Care
|June 19, 2026
PubMed
Summary

Economic downturns in Italy correlate with lower mortality rates, a pattern disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. This research highlights the need for public health policies addressing economic cycles and their health impacts.

Keywords:
Business CyclesCOVID-19 ImpactItalyMortality RatesPublic HealthUnemployment

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Area of Science:

  • Public Health
  • Health Economics
  • Epidemiology

Background:

  • Business cycles significantly influence population health, yet the precise relationship between macroeconomic conditions and mortality rates requires further investigation.
  • Understanding these dynamics is crucial for developing effective public health interventions and economic policies.
  • Previous research has explored socioeconomic determinants of health, but the specific impact of business cycle fluctuations on mortality across diverse demographic groups remains an active area of study.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the relationship between business cycles, proxied by unemployment rates, and mortality rates in Italy from 2004-2019.
  • To analyze how economic fluctuations affect mortality across various causes of death, age groups, genders, and educational levels.
  • To assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on established unemployment-mortality dynamics.

Main Methods:

  • Utilized panel data methods with data from the National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT) for the period 2004-2019.
  • Employed unemployment rates as a proxy for macroeconomic conditions to analyze mortality patterns.
  • Extended the analysis to include COVID-19 pandemic years (2020-2021) to evaluate robustness and pandemic effects.

Main Results:

  • A procyclical relationship was identified, indicating that higher unemployment rates were associated with lower mortality rates.
  • Significant heterogeneity in the unemployment-mortality relationship was observed across different demographic groups and causes of death.
  • The COVID-19 pandemic notably disrupted previously observed unemployment-mortality dynamics, particularly impacting mortality from transport accidents and respiratory diseases.

Conclusions:

  • Macroeconomic conditions, specifically business cycles, exert a significant influence on mortality patterns in Italy.
  • Public health policies should be tailored to mitigate health risks during economic expansions and contractions.
  • The COVID-19 pandemic underscored the vulnerability of established health-mortality relationships to major global events, necessitating adaptive public health strategies.