| Here’s a no-brainer: Losing money in the stock market can cause stress. But according to a
recent study, China’s stock market fluctuations have been so
distressing for some people here in the mainland that they’re ending up
in the emergency room. A
group of researchers from institutions including the National
University of Singapore and Peking University found an increased number
of patients with cardiovascular disease or mental health issues
reporting to ERs on occasions when China’s stock market recorded a 1
percentage point decrease in daily returns. The findings, published in the journal Nature Mental Health,
are based on a comparison of medical data from Beijing’s three largest
hospitals from 2009 to 2012 and China’s stock market performance. A
rough calculation based on the results implies that a
10 percentage-point fall in daily stock market returns could result in
roughly an additional 35 million yuan ($4.9 million) in national medical
expenses associated with ER services, the researchers wrote. They
cautioned that the data collected for the study are more than a decade
old and there may be limitations in applying the findings to today’s
situation. Still, we’ve seen many Chinese investors take to social media
to share their trauma after loss-making investments in the stock
market. One user on Xiaohongshu, China’s equivalent of Instagram, posted
that she was diagnosed with depression after losing more than 1 million
yuan trading shares. A number of people replied to her post, sharing
similar ordeals and pressures they subsequently encountered. China’s
A-share market has been dominated by individual investors who are
generally considered less sophisticated and more heavily impacted
by market gyrations than their institutional counterparts. There were
more than 220 million individual investors compared with 536,000
institutional investors in the mainland’s stock market as of August
2023, according to data compiled by China Securities Depository and Clearing Co. China’s
stock market has been mired in difficulties and has performed poorly
over the past few years as Covid disruptions, tech crackdowns and a
property slump crushed investor confidence. The benchmark CSI 300 Index
for onshore stocks recorded annual losses each of the last three years.
Many Chinese households have already been pulling back on things like travel and bigger purchases amid overall economic uncertainty. Still,
there’s some good news: “Diseases that are less related to
psychological stress are not significantly affected by market
fluctuation,” according to the research, including infections and
illness caused by parasites. —Karen Leigh |