Short CommunicationThe impact of economic crisis on injury mortality: The case of the ‘Asian crisis’
Introduction
The impact of economic crises on health has been studied in multiple regions around the world. Prior to the economic crises in South America and the former Soviet Union and some of its satellite countries in the 1990s, similar problems were seen in Asian countries.1, 2, 3 Studies assessing the influence of economic crises on health reported an increase in the mortality rate of more than 30% in Russia between 1990 and 1994.4 Cutler et al. described a similar relationship between the economic crisis in 1995–1996 and the changes in mortality in Mexico, where mortality rates were 5–7% higher during this period than in the years just prior to this event.5
Little attention has been paid to the influence of economic crises on cause-specific mortality. However, a few studies of the former Soviet Union and its satellite countries documented the impact of political and economic crises in the early 1990s on cause-specific mortality.4, 6, 7 Increases in overall mortality rates between 1987 and1994 in this region were more noticeable in young adult and middle-aged groups compared with older and younger people, who are normally considered to be more vulnerable to injury-related mortality.6 The dramatic increase in the mortality rates in working-age adults in the early part of the last decade was mainly attributed to an increase in the number of deaths due to injuries, including suicide, homicide and road traffic accidents (RTA).
The sharp increases in injury-related mortality rates in the former Soviet Union and some of its satellite countries during the economic crisis, which started in the 1990s, have raised interest about whether similar patterns occur in other areas when economic crises take place. This article aimed to examine the impacts of the Asian economic crisis, which started in 1997, on cause-specific injury mortality rates in working-age (15–44 years) adults.
Section snippets
Results
Age- and sex-specific World Health Organization (WHO) mortality data (/100,000) for selected injury causes were analysed for Japan, South Korea and Thailand for 1994–2000. Injury mortality trends against per-capita income (measured in US dollars) and percentage changes were analysed to assess the impacts of economic crises on cause-specific injury mortality rates. As shown in Fig. 1, a steady decline in road traffic accident (RTA) mortality rates among individuals aged 15–44 years was observed
Discussion
The decreases in RTA mortality rates found in this study are in accordance with those reported in South Korea.2, 3 These studies found that the RTA mortality rate in South Korea decreased temporarily after the economic crisis and then returned to the pre-crisis level. This could be explained, at least in part, by the sharp reduction in car usage, as reflected by the decline in car sales and reduced fuel consumption in South East Asian countries.
The decrease in traffic-related mortality during
Ethical approval
None sought.
Funding
None declared.
Competing interests
None declared.
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