This paper adds to the “costs of recessions” literature by examining whether the Great Recession caused an increase in body mass index (BMI) among economically insecure working age adults. Using a difference-in-differences (DiD) design and two panels of the Canadian National Population Health Survey, we compare the pre-recession era (2004–2005) with the Great Recession (2008–2009). In addition to stratifying by gender, quantile regressions examine BMI changes at different points along the outcome distribution, and we extend our DiD model to examine how effects vary across income, education, and age. Our results suggest that the increased economic stress of job insecurity or joblessness during the Great Recession caused a 2-point increase in BMI for females, and a 3-point increase for males aged 45–64. Results weakly suggest that lower educated males who were economically insecure during the Great Recession also gained 3 BMI points. For working age Canadians of average height, this translates to a 12 and 20 lb (5.44 and 9.07 kilogram) increase for vulnerable females and males respectively.

本文通过考察经济大萧条是否导致经济不安全的工作年龄成年人的体重指数（BMI）升高，来增加“衰退的代价”文献。使用差异差异（DiD）设计和加拿大国家人口健康调查的两个小组，我们将衰退前时代（2004–2005）与大衰退（2008–2009）进行了比较。除了按性别分层外，分位数回归还检查了结果分布上不同点的BMI变化，并且我们扩展了DiD模型以检查影响在收入，教育程度和年龄之间如何变化。我们的结果表明，在大萧条期间，由于工作不安全感或失业而增加的经济压力导致女性BMI上升2点，而45-64岁男性则上升3点。结果微弱地表明，在大萧条期间经济不安全的低学历男性也获得了3个BMI点。对于平均身高的加拿大工作年龄，这意味着脆弱的女性和男性分别增加了12磅和20磅（5.44公斤和9.07公斤）。