Cancer deaths went up during the recession

The 2008 recession didn’t just cost people their jobs, a new study has found — it cost 260,000 people their lives.

In a study released Wednesday by the Lancet, researchers linked unemployment during the 2008-2010 recession to an increase in cancer deaths worldwide.

This is the first time unemployment has been linked to cancer deaths, the study’s authors wrote. It may help government officials understand how the health-care system can protect citizens during an economic downturn.

The researchers found that the recession was tied to an additional 260,000 deaths from cancer in 34 countries, including the US, Canada, Australia and the UK.

As people lose access to health care or can no longer afford to visit the doctor, deaths from treatable diseases increase, the study found.

The researchers looked specifically at colorectal, pancreatic and lung cancer, as well as breast cancer in women and prostate cancer in men. They found that the mortality rate of untreatable cancer was not linked to unemployment changes, while the mortality rate of treatable cancer was linked to changes.

But the trend wasn’t universal: Countries with universal health care didn’t see the same increase. “Unemployment does lead to [an] excess number of cancer deaths,” the authors wrote, “but if there [are] strong health systems and if public health expenditure increases, many of these cancer deaths can be reduced.”

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