The upside of recession

An interesting article in the Washington Post describes 5 myths about recessions. The number 4 myth was the most interesting:

4. Recessions are bad for your health.
David Mamet once told an interviewer that he got the inspiration
for his 1984 Pulitzer Prize-winning play "Glengarry Glen Ross" from an account
of a salesman's fatal heart attack, caused by a recession "so vicious the
competition was for jobs and sales, especially among older men." However, for
most Americans, the story is quite the opposite. Americans get healthier as the
economy gets worse. Unemployment tends to increase during recessions, but
economist Christopher J. Ruhm of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro has found that a
temporary one percentage point increase in the unemployment rate leads to a 0.5
to 0.6 percent reduction in the mortality rate, or about 14,000 fewer deaths per
year.
Why the health benefits? With more free time and less money on their
hands, people tend to consume less tobacco, exercise more, prepare healthier
meals and lose weight. In addition, they are much less likely to have car and
other accidents, and to catch communicable and sometimes fatal diseases such as
influenza. Among the top 10 causes of death in the United States, only suicide
rates show a substantial unemployment-driven increase. Even deaths caused by
heart disease fall substantially.

I wonder how this would play out during an extreme downturn. It would seem like someone who is unemployed and hasn't given up on his outlook would cut back on bad behaviors because of temporary money issues and more time on his hands might lead to more exercise. But if the layoff goes on and on, the person has a high risk of becoming poor and the poor have more health problems and lower lifespans.