SynthesisSocial science & medicine (1982)2011
Losing life and livelihood: a systematic review and meta-analysis of unemployment and all-cause mortality.
Synthesis in Social science & medicine (1982), 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 224 papers, 10 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
224 citing papers in PubMed, 10 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- The Effectiveness of Health-Oriented Interventions and Health Promotion for Unemployed People-A Meta-Analysis.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Pooled it
- Mental and social wellbeing and the UK coronavirus job retention scheme: Evidence from nine longitudinal studies.Social science & medicine (1982) · 2022Pooled it
- Employment Status and Alcohol-Attributable Mortality Risk-A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Pooled it
- The UK Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme and diet, physical activity, and sleep during the COVID-19 pandemic: evidence from eight longitudinal population surveys.BMC medicine · 2022Pooled it
- Sickness and the Social Brain: Love in the Time of COVID.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2021Pooled it
- Impact of Political Economy on Population Health: A Systematic Review of Reviews.American journal of public health · 2019Pooled it
- The association of unemployment with glucose metabolism: a systematic review and meta-analysis.International journal of public health · 2018Pooled it
- Mental health outcomes in times of economic recession: a systematic literature review.BMC public health · 2016Pooled it
- Misery loves company? A meta-regression examining aggregate unemployment rates and the unemployment-mortality association.Annals of epidemiology · 2015Pooled it
- Understanding the social determinants of health among Indigenous Canadians: priorities for health promotion policies and actions.Global health action · 2015Pooled it
- Proactive automatized multiple health risk behavior change intervention: reach and retention among general hospital patients.European journal of public health · 2025Trial
- Results from a Nationwide Evaluation Study of Labor Market-Integrative Health Promotion for the Unemployed: Impact of the JOBS Program Germany.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Trial
- The Individual Placement and Support (IPS) in Pain Trial: A Randomized Controlled Trial of IPS for Patients with Chronic Pain Conditions.Pain medicine (Malden, Mass.) · 2022Trial
- Separation from the CDC and its consequences for the public health workforce: findings from the CDC WISE Survey.Health affairs scholar · 2026Article
- Unemployment and sickness allowance onset and prevalence: a longitudinal register-based study.BMC public health · 2026Article
- Occupational and socioeconomic predictors of myocardial infarction and coronary heart disease: a machine learning analysis.BMC public health · 2026Article
- How segregation, low birth weight, unemployment, and violence link to low life expectancy in Chicago.Health affairs scholar · 2026Article
- Unemployment during life can lead to metabolic syndrome in adult age. A 40-year follow-up of the Northern Swedish Cohort.European journal of public health · 2026Article
- Unmet need for healthcare services among unemployed people - findings from a national survey in Finland.BMC health services research · 2025Article
- Non-linear relationships between lifetime unemployment exposure, major health outcomes and all-cause mortality: a retrospective and prospective study in a large population-based French cohort.BMC public health · 2025Article
164 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Unemployment rates in the United States remain near a 25-year high and global unemployment is rising. Previous studies have shown that unemployed persons have an increased risk of death, but the magnitude of the risk and moderating factors have not been explored. The study is a random effects meta-analysis and meta-regression designed to assess the association between unemployment and all-cause mortality among working-age persons. We extracted 235 mortality risk estimates from 42 studies, providing data on more than 20 million persons. The mean hazard ratio (HR) for mortality was 1.63 among HRs adjusted for age and additional covariates. The mean effect was higher for men than for women. Unemployment was associated with an increased mortality risk for those in their early and middle careers, but less for those in their late career. The risk of death was highest during the first 10 years of follow-up, but decreased subsequently. The mean HR was 24% lower among the subset of studies controlling for health-related behaviors. Public health initiatives could target unemployed persons for more aggressive cardiovascular screening and interventions aimed at reducing risk-taking behaviors.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.