Despite more free time for exercise, unemployment likely causes a slight increase in body weight, according to a new study published by the National Bureau of Economic Research.
The increase in unemployment during the Great Recession greatly hurt the economy, but it did create a better opportunity to study the effects of unemployment on personal health. Unemployment has little effect on personal behavior when someone expects to quickly find a new job during a booming economy. But as unemployment drags on, as it did for so many during the recession, its effects on personal behavior increase. The average length of unemployment peaked at 40.7 weeks in December 2011, up from 16.6 weeks in December 2007.
The study was conducted by Gregory Colman, from Pace University, and Dhaval Dave, from Bentley University.
Unemployment is associated with an increase in light exercise, but offset by decreases in vigorous and moderate physical activity. Overall, there is “a substantial decline in total physical activity,” Colman and Dave wrote in the abstract. Especially for men, job losses were concentrated in physically demanding jobs such as construction and manufacturing. The resulting unemployment led to a small increase in body weight.
Even though the unemployed have more free time, they are not using it to exercise vigorously. “While job-loss reduces time constraints, the freed-up time is generally allocated towards more sedentary activities,” wrote Colman and Dave.
In spite of the expected weight gain, unemployment makes someone less likely to purchase fast food, soft drinks, and snacks. Since the unemployed have more free time, they are more likely to purchase groceries and prepare their own meals. The authors concluded that this was not caused by a reduction in income.
The study also revealed interesting effects of unemployment on smoking. One might expect newly-unemployed smokers to increase cigarette consumption, due to restrictions on smoking in the workplace and newfound stress. However, heavy smokers actually reduce their cigarette consumption, since they have less income to use on cigarettes. Meanwhile, unemployed ex-smokers are more likely to relapse when they become unemployed, possibly due to an increase in stress.
Despite more free time, the unemployed are more likely to delay a physical exam. Clearly, less income and loss of health insurance outweighs any effect of extra free time when it comes to seeing the doctor.
Today, the duration of unemployment is still nearly twice as long as its pre-recession level. This study suggests that the Great Recession did not just seriously hurt the economy, but public health. Even though smoking falls among frequent smokers, many more of the unemployed are generally less active. This can lead to weight gain and even obesity.
