Journal article
Individual Joblessness, Contextual Unemployment, and Mortality Risk
American journal of epidemiology, v 180(3), pp 280-287
01 Aug 2014
PMID: 24993734
Featured in Collection : UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel
Abstract
Longitudinal studies at the level of individuals find that employees who lose their jobs are at increased risk of death. However, analyses of aggregate data find that as unemployment rates increase during recessions, population mortality actually declines. We addressed this paradox by using data from the US Department of Labor and annual survey data (1979-1997) from a nationally representative longitudinal study of individuals-the Panel Study of Income Dynamics. Using proportional hazards (Cox) regression, we analyzed how the hazard of death depended on 1) individual joblessness and 2) state unemployment rates, as indicators of contextual economic conditions. We found that 1) compared with the employed, for the unemployed the hazard of death was increased by an amount equivalent to 10 extra years of age, and 2) each percentage-point increase in the state unemployment rate reduced the mortality hazard in all individuals by an amount equivalent to a reduction of 1 year of age. Our results provide evidence that 1) joblessness strongly and significantly raises the risk of death among those suffering it, and 2) periods of higher unemployment rates, that is, recessions, are associated with a moderate but significant reduction in the risk of death among the entire population.
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Details
- Title
- Individual Joblessness, Contextual Unemployment, and Mortality Risk
- Creators
- Jose A. Tapia Granados - Drexel UniversityJames S. House - University of Michigan–Ann ArborEdward L. Ionides - University of Michigan Injury Prevention CenterSarah Burgard - SociologyRobert S. Schoeni - Sociology
- Publication Details
- American journal of epidemiology, v 180(3), pp 280-287
- Publisher
- Oxford Univ Press
- Number of pages
- 8
- Grant note
- R01AG040213 / NATIONAL INSTITUTE ON AGING; United States Department of Health & Human Services; National Institutes of Health (NIH) - USA; NIH National Institute on Aging (NIA) R24HD041028 / EUNICE KENNEDY SHRIVER NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF CHILD HEALTH & HUMAN DEVELOPMENT; United States Department of Health & Human Services; National Institutes of Health (NIH) - USA; NIH Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development (NICHD) HD057411-02 / National Institutes of Health from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development R21HD057411 / EUNICE KENNEDY SHRIVER NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF CHILD HEALTH &HUMAN DEVELOPMENT; United States Department of Health & Human Services; National Institutes of Health (NIH) - USA; NIH Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development (NICHD)
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Politics
- Web of Science ID
- WOS:000340432800008
- Scopus ID
- 2-s2.0-84905670634
- Other Identifier
- 991019168306904721
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- Collaboration types
- Domestic collaboration
- Web of Science research areas
- Public, Environmental & Occupational Health