FILE PHOTO: In this Nov. 21, 2013 photo, Cleda Turner, director of the Owsley County Outreach, folds clothes at the thrift store in Booneville, Ky. A drop in federal food assistance has struck Owsley County hard.
Dylan Lovan / AP Photo
Feelings of despair found to be connected to four common personal burdens
Researchers connect these contributors to "diseases of despair" in Pennsylvania communities
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Merideth Bucher
Dylan Lovan / AP Photo
FILE PHOTO: In this Nov. 21, 2013 photo, Cleda Turner, director of the Owsley County Outreach, folds clothes at the thrift store in Booneville, Ky. A drop in federal food assistance has struck Owsley County hard.
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Airdate: Tuesday, July 27, 2021
Researchers who completed a study in 2015 coined a term around any medical diagnosis involving alcohol-related disorders, substance-related disorders and suicidal thoughts and behavior — calling them diseases of despair.
They proposed the concept after observing a decline in life expectancy of middle-aged white men and women between 1999 and 2015. They noted this was the first such decline since the flu pandemic of 1918 and they theorized that the decline was associated with the social and economic downturn in rural communities and small towns over the last several decades, leading to feelings of despair and loss of hope for the future.
Penn State College of Medicine and Highmark Health researchers took the concept a step further by identifying four key themes promoting the disease track. The themes include financial instability, lack of infrastructure, a deteriorating sense of community and family fragmentation.
Daniel George, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor with the Department of Humanities and Department of Public Health Sciences with Penn State College of Medicine and he participated in the latest study. He appears on Smart Talk Tuesday to offer research details and the implications to communities in Pennsylvania.
For more on health issues plus a deeper look at the changing tide of healthcare–check out WITF’s Transforming Health. Online at TransformingHealth.org, a partnership of WITF, WellSpan Health and Capital Blue Cross.
