The Effects of Unemployment on Mortality Following Workplace Downsizing and Workplace Closure: a Register-based Follow-up Study of Finnish Men and Women During Economic Boom and Recession.
From: Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland. pekka.martikainen@helsinki.fi
American journal of epidemiology
- Publish Date: May 2007
- ISSN: 0002-9262
- Volume: 165
- Issue: 9
- Pages: 1070-5
- Medium: Print
- Language: English
- Citation (JAMA): Martikainen Pekka, Mäki Netta, Jäntti Markus, et al. The Effects of Unemployment on Mortality Following Workplace Downsizing and Workplace Closure: a Register-based Follow-up Study of Finnish Men and Women During Economic Boom and Recession.. Am. J. Epidemiol. May 2007;165:1070-5
Abstract
Unemployment is strongly associated with mortality on the individual level. The reasons for this association are not fully established. The authors estimated the effects of unemployment and workplace downsizing on mortality during periods of low (1989) and high (1994) unemployment in Finland. They used prospective population registration data containing detailed socioeconomic and demographic information on two cohorts aged 35-64 years at the beginning of 1989 (N = 87,317) and 1994 (N = 72,419) followed up for mortality in 1990-1997 and 1995-2002, respectively. Unemployment was found to be associated with a 2.38-fold increase in the hazard of mortality after 1989 and with a 1.25-fold increase after 1994. No excess mortality was observed among those who, at baseline, were employed at workplaces that had experienced large reductions in employment. Furthermore, the association between unemployment and mortality was weaker among those working in establishments that had been strongly downsized. By showing that, in the context of either a high level of unemployment or rapid downsizing, the effects of unemployment on mortality are modest, this study provides strong evidence of unaccounted confounding. Individual-level studies may thus overestimate the causal effects of unemployment on mortality.
Mesh Headings (Keywords): Adult, Female, Finland, Humans, Life Change Events, Male, Middle Aged, Mortality, Personnel Downsizing, Prospective Studies, Research Design, Risk Factors, Time Factors, Unemployment
Check for Full Text / PubMed Unique Identifier (PMID): 17363363
This abstract is part of PubMed, a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine. PubMed includes more than 17 million citations from MEDLINE and other life science journals for biomedical articles. See Copyright and Disclaimers.
Linked medical terms appearing on this page are added by Healia to help readers find more information and are not part of the original PubMed document.
The data herein was last updated on July 8th, 2008 and may not reflect the most current and accurate data available from NLM.