Age and Cause specific Mortality Rates in Recession Years: Evidence from Greece

Business cycles can be powerful determinants of mortality. Greece is currently found in a severe economic downturn. This study examines whether the repercussions of those economic trends are already shown on age and cause-specific death rates. Despite the fact that the crisis is still unfolding and the rather limited time-span since its outburst, results are quite interesting. All cause age-standardized mortality rates continued to decrease. However, infant mortality has increased since 2008. This trend is of particular importance since infant mortality is traditionally considered as an economic development indicator. Mortality due to violent deaths (namely, homicide and suicide) as well as mental and behavioral disorder has also followed an upward trend mainly among males, during the last two or three years. It seems that there is some evidence that mortality in Greece has been affected by recession. This study focused on immediate mortality effects and therefore follow-up studies are needed to further elucidate our research question.