In the last issue of RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences, “Biosocial Pathways of Well-Being Across the Life Course,” authors Elizabeth McClure (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill) and colleagues explore the effects of the Great Recession on the physical health of residents of Detroit, Michigan. Drawing from the Detroit Neighborhood Health Study—a population-based survey of primarily African American adults that began in 2008 at the start of the recession—they analyze the associations between neighborhood characteristics and respondents’ thymic function. As they note, earlier research has shown that exposure to socioeconomic stressors reduces thymic function, which in turn weakens the immune system.
In the figure below, the authors outline a conceptual model of how the immune system is affected by acute and chronic neighborhood-level economic stress. They hypothesize that respondents living in neighborhoods with a higher prevalence of abandoned homes and home foreclosures would experience lower thymic function as a result of increased exposure to neighborhood crime and loss of neighborhood social cohesion. Based on prior studies that show that the Great Recession was particularly harmful to middle-class households, they also hypothesize that middle-income respondents could be more vulnerable than their either lower- or higher-income counterparts to the negative impacts of economic stress.
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Through analyses of blood samples from the survey respondents, the authors confirmed that thymic function was at a statistically significant lower level among participants living in neighborhoods with more abandoned homes. After controlling for age, sex, and employment status, a 10 percent increase in a neighborhood’s prevalence of abandoned homes was roughly associated with a decrease in thymic function equivalent to aging 1.7 years among respondents living in that neighborhood. Similarly, a 1 percentage point increase in 2009 home foreclosures was associated with a decrease in thymic function equivalent to aging 3.3 years. In line with prior studies, the authors also found that the association between poor neighborhood conditions and weakened immune function was strongest among middle-income individuals.
Although today the economy has bounced back from the 2008 crash, the gains over the last ten years have gone mostly to the top 1% of earners, meaning that many households continue to feel the impact of the recession. Furthermore, some economists have speculated that another downturn may be around the corner, leading to more home foreclosures and other forms of financial hardship for middle-class families, which in turn may negatively affect their health.
“If the association that we observed [in our study] is causal,” McClure and colleagues write, “it may have far-reaching implications for addressing the health and well-being of individuals living in neighborhoods characterized by foreclosures and abandoned homes.”
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