Objective:

to analyse the impact of the economic situation on the perception of health status and the explanatory role of certain individual characteristics in its variability.

Method:

cross-sectional study with an analytical approach. Data from the Spanish National Health Survey (NHS) published in 2011/12 (economic crisis) and 2017 (recovery) were used. The dependent variable was self-perceived health measured on a Likert scale from 1 (very good) to 5 (very bad). Independent variables were: the time of collection (crisis/recovery), socio-demographic, lifestyle-related, related to “objective” health status and related to service use. Generalised Linear Models were constructed to tackle the objectives. To evaluate the magnitude of the effect size of the associations, the dispersion of the distributions was assessed according to the ratio of the effect to the standard deviation of the mean (SD).

Results:

an improvement in the self-perceived health of -0.066 (95%CI: -0.080/-0.052) points was detected for the recovery period. “Moderate” effect size associations were revealed between worse self-perceived health and variables related to “objective” health status and “small” with variables related to unhealthy lifestyle and most deprived social class.

Conclusion:

periods of the economic crisis are associated with worse self-perceived health with a greater impact on the population belonging to a low social category, unhealthy lifestyle habits and especially on chronic patients.

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