TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2019//
TI  - Does despair really kill? A roadmap for an evidence-based answer
JO  - American journal of public health
A1  - Shanahan, Lilly
A1  - Hill, Sherika N.
A1  - Gaydosh, Lauren M.
A1  - Steinhoff, Annekatrin
A1  - Costello, E. Jane
A1  - Dodge, Kenneth A.
A1  - Harris, Kathleen Mullan
A1  - Copeland, William E.
SP  - 854
EP  - 858
VL  - 109
IS  - 6
N2  - Two seemingly associated demographic trends have generated considerable interest: income stagnation and rising premature mortality from suicides, drug poisoning, and alcoholic liver disease among US non-Hispanic Whites with low education. Economists interpret these population-level trends to indicate that despair induced by financial stressors is a shared pathway to these causes of death. Although we now have the catchy term "deaths of despair," we have yet to study its central empirical claim: that conceptually defined and empirically assessed "despair" is indeed a common pathway to several causes of death. At the level of the person, despair consists of cognitive, emotional, behavioral, and biological domains. Despair can also permeate social relationships, networks, institutions, and communities. Extant longitudinal data sets feature repeated measures of despair-before, during, and after the Great Recession-offering resources to test the role that despair induced by economic decline plays in premature morbidity and mortality. Such tests must also focus on protective factors that could shield individuals. <i>Deaths of despair</i> is more than a phrase; it constitutes a hypothesis that deserves conceptual mapping and empirical study with longitudinal, multilevel data. (<i>Am J Public Health</i>. Published online ahead of print April 18, 2019: e1-e5. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2019.305016).<p />  <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 0090-0036
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2019.305016
ID  - ref1
ER  -