As the world economic crisis of the early 1930s led to mass unemployment and poverty, international health experts monitored their effects on public health. Common sense dictated a direct correlation: reduced employment meant reduced income which, in turn, meant reduced expenditures for health, both on an individual and a public ...
(Show more)As the world economic crisis of the early 1930s led to mass unemployment and poverty, international health experts monitored their effects on public health. Common sense dictated a direct correlation: reduced employment meant reduced income which, in turn, meant reduced expenditures for health, both on an individual and a public or corporate level. Surprisingly, however, little if any effect became evident in available mortality and morbidity data.
However, as bewildered scientists and health officers looked into the matter, the focus shifted from questionable short-term results of the crisis to an increasingly evident long-term connection between economics and health. Under the tutelage of the League of Nations, international working groups explored
1. Statistical Methods to study the effects of depression on morbidity,
2. Measures taken in different countries to ensure healthy nutrition in spite of bad economic conditions,
3. Money saving potential through better coordination of the public health structure,
4. Colonisation, i.e. wild or organised settlements of unemployed at the outskirts of cities, and
5. Mental hygiene, i.e. the psychological effects of the depression.
Soon, nutrition and the tangible effects of unemployment on food consumption and malnutrition came to dominate the agenda. These discussions politicised ongoing studies on nutrition, evoking discussions on school meals, minimal wages, effective social legislation, price regulations and wealth allocation within societies.
Together, it proved impossible to contain the issue within the narrow confines of medicine but broadened to include aspects of economic and political structure and controversial concepts of societal responsibilities. Thus, health concerns of economic crisis served as a catalyst to provoke discussions on fundamental issues of social justice.
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