STUDY: UNEMPLOYMENT INCREASES CHANCES OF EARLY DEATH From International Labor Communications Association

WASHINGTON (PAI)--To paraphrase the warning on cigarette packs: 'Unemployment is hazardous to your health.' Or, to be more precise, it increases your chances of early death. That's the conclusion of a detailed, controlled study of job-holding and jobless workers--all of them twins--published in the December issue of the American Journal of Public Health.

The study confirms what was long suspected, but quantifies the impact of joblessness on premature death rates by eliminating--to the greatest extent it can--other factors. Five Swedish researchers used data from sets of identical twins born there from 1926-1958. That decision eliminated differing outside influences, such as initial socioeconomic status, family income, or home or community environment.

Researchers tracked the group, after initial questionnaires about employment sent in 1973, through the end of 1996. The twins included 11,132 men and 9,500 women--of whom 1,309 men were jobless at some point before 1973, as were 875 women. Their unemployment duration could be long or short. The twins of those people were not jobless.

What the research found was that women who were jobless at any time during the study period were 2.7 times more likely to commit suicide than their twin sisters were.

They were twice as likely to die from injuries, poisoning and 'other external causes,' 30 percent more likely to die from heart disease, and 40 percent more likely to die early overall.

The death rate of the jobless men from 'undetermined external causes' was 5.8 times that of their employed twins. The researchers noted 'this raises the possibility that suicide is less likely to be identified among men than among women.'

Cancer death rates of the jobless male twins were 40 percent higher, and deaths from lung, trachea or bronchial cancer were 50 percent higher, and while alcoholism deaths were up 30 percent.

The overall early death rate for male twins who suffered joblessness at any time was 30 percent higher than for their job-holding twins. And the researchers noted their study might understate the impact of joblessness on death rates.

They said joblessness often had a high correlation, among the twins, with other 'risk factors.' One was a seven-fold increase in early deaths by jobless female twins from overdoses of sleeping pills. The jobless male twins showed more deaths from sleeping pills and from long-lasting or serious illnesses.

'Unemployment is associated with an increased risk of early death even after adjustment for several potential confounding factors, including socioeconomic status, lifestyle factors, and genetic and early childhood factors,' the researchers wrote.

'Further, the results indicate the risk of early mortality following unemployment may be strengthened by social, health and personality factors,' they added.

There were other limits to the study, too. The big one, they said, is that the initial questionnaire asked if the twins were ever jobless or not up through 1973.

After that year, the researchers tracked twins' deaths and causes, but not subsequent periods of joblessness, either for those twins who reported they were unemployed before 1973 or those who reported they were not.

'Individuals classified as 'never unemployed' as of 1973 could encounter unemployment later on and therefore be misclassified,' the researchers admitted. They noted Swedish jobless rates ranged between 2 percent and 4 percent from the 1950s through the 1980s but averaged 8 percent in the 1990s.

'This limitation would lead to underestimated risk if those who became unemployed after 1973 had the same (early) mortality pattern as those reported as 'ever unemployed' as of 1973,' the researchers pointed out.

If twins who were jobless after 1973 had lower death rates, 'reported estimates could be biased upwards,' researchers said. 'However, we have no reason to believe this to be the case.

'On the other hand, it is uncertain to what extent the results are valid for more recent time periods, when worker groups other than those of the study face unemployment,' they noted.

Nevertheless, 'An increased risk of early mortality related to unemployment should be recognized,' the study concluded. 'Our results suggest that characteristics of the individual prior to unemployment cannot explain this increased risk.'



--The author writes for Press Association International (PAI).



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