Word: jobbing
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...continually updated data set known as the U.S. Panel of Study of Income Dynamics (PSID), which surveys people around the country each year on their employment status and their self-reports of health, among other things. Strully used data from 1999, 2001 and 2003 to track people's job status and the impact on each person's health 18 months later. Since previous studies on employment and health suffered from a chicken-or-egg conundrum - researchers could never be sure whether the stresses and strains of unemployment led to poorer health, or whether people's poor health led to missed...
...found that among people unemployed under these circumstances and who did not report any health problems prior to losing their job, 80% were diagnosed with a new health problem - ranging from hypertension and heart disease to diabetes - 18 months later. (Not surprisingly, those who started out with one or more of the conditions asked about on the survey were 54% more likely to lose their job within a year and half, for any reason, than those who did not report any health problems.) The most commonly reported conditions among this group were high blood pressure, arthritis and other cardiovascular-related...
More intriguing was the long-term effect job loss appeared to have. Even if some of these people found new jobs soon after losing their first one, they were more likely to retain the legacy of poor health from having once been unemployed. "People who lost their job and were re-employed within a year and half also reported increased onset of new health problems," she says. "They shouldn't have had the most severe experiences of unemployment and income loss, and still we see them having new health issues...
Strully also found that blue-collar workers were harder hit by job loss, both physically and mentally. After losing their job, whether they were fired, laid off or left voluntarily, blue-collar workers were twice as likely to report being in fair or poor health as white-collar workers, among whom Strully found no such change in health. While the current study does not investigate the reasons for that disparity, Strully believes it may have something to do with the smaller financial buffer that blue-collar employees tend to have to cushion them from a sudden loss of income...
...this serves as a strong reminder that losing one's job can be a trauma - for both body and mind, and one that may have lasting effects. "This study is important and timely, given our current economic challenges, because it raises important questions as we think about rebuilding our nation and coming out of the economic recession, says David Williams, professor of public health at the Harvard School of Public Health and staff director of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Commission to Build a Healthier America. "We need to think about the health implications that economic changes are having...