TY - JOUR T1 - Bank failures, mortality and the Great Depression JF - Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health JO - J Epidemiol Community Health SP - 477 LP - 478 DO - 10.1136/jech-2011-200721 VL - 66 IS - 5 AU - José A Tapia Granados Y1 - 2012/05/01 UR - http://jech.bmj.com/content/66/5/477.2.abstract N2 - I was quite surprised when I found my name in the acknowledgements of the paper by Stuckler et al.1 Since nobody requested my permission to put my name there, I would like to provide some comments now.Though only data for 1929–1937 are considered in the paper, quite bold statements are made on changes in these years being consistent with longer-term patterns commonly referred to as epidemiologic transition. Consistent with this transition ‘chronic non-communicable diseases and injuries tended to rise during the Great Depression.’ However, as data in the same paper show, in 1929–1931, the worst years of the Depression, heart disease and cancer mortality deviated downward from its rising trend. Traffic mortality also had a major drop in … ER -