Unemployment could kill you...

...while recession might be good for health, says a US-based study

Washington: A new study has revealed that losing a job might increase risk of death in people, but recession could help decrease the mortality risk. Researchers from Drexel University and the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor revealed that job loss was associated with a 73 per cent increase in the probability of death, the equivalent of adding 10 years to a person’s age. However, this increased risk affected only a minority of people who were unemployed and was outweighed by health-promoting effects of an economic slowdown that affect the entire population, such as a drop in traffic fatalities and reduced pollution.

The study — Individual Joblessness, Contextual Unemployment, and Mortality Risk — has been published in the American Journal of Epidemiology. pic for representation only

The data
The researchers found that each percentage-point increased in the individual’s state unemployment rate reduced the hazard of death by approximately nine per cent, which was about the equivalent of making a person one year younger. The data was used to estimate how the risk of death depends on both the employment conditions of the individuals and the contextual economic conditions surrounding them. Models to estimate the strength of these associations included numerous variables sex, age, marital status, household income, previous health to adjust for potential confounders.

Models also included variables with a lag for instance, the employment status one or two years before to take into consideration the possibility that having poor health was what raised the risk of becoming unemployed and dying. Jose Tapia, PhD, said, “People don’t realise that economic expansions, which usually reduces joblessness, also have effects that could be harmful for society at large.”

The researchers suggested that the increase in the risk of death associated with individual joblessness might be related to stress and depression, which often lead to substance abuse and other harmful behaviors. The study Individual Joblessness, Contextual Unemployment, and Mortality Risk. is published in the American Journal of Epidemiology.

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