SynthesisPloS one2013
Long-term unemployment and suicide: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
Synthesis in PloS one, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 128 papers, 7 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
128 citing papers in PubMed, 7 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- The Pooled Prevalence of Attributed Factors of Suicide in Iran: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.Archives of Iranian medicine · 2025Pooled it
- Workplace Injury Compensation and Mental Health and Self-Harm Outcomes: A Systematic Review.New solutions : a journal of environmental and occupational health policy : NS · 2024Pooled it
- Suicide, self-harm and suicidal ideation during COVID-19: A systematic review.Psychiatry research · 2021Pooled it
- Does unemployment lead to greater levels of loneliness? A systematic review.Social science & medicine (1982) · 2021Pooled it
- Suicidality in Fibromyalgia: A Systematic Review of the Literature.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2020Pooled it
- Going upstream - an umbrella review of the macroeconomic determinants of health and health inequalities.BMC public health · 2019Pooled it
- Are we Using the Right Evidence to Inform Suicide Prevention in Low- and Middle-Income Countries? An Umbrella Review.Archives of suicide research : official journal of the International Academy for Suicide ResearchPooled it
- Impact of Tailored Interventions on Suicidal Ideation Recovery: Addressing Hopelessness Among Economically Vulnerable Populations During COVID-19 Period.Journal of Korean medical science · 2026Trial
- Job Loss Due to COVID-19: A Longitudinal Study of Mental Health, Protective and Risk Factors.Psychological reports · 2026Trial
- Predictors of Mortality Following a Schizophrenia Spectrum Diagnosis: Evidence From the 20-Year Follow-up of the OPUS Randomized Controlled Trial.Schizophrenia bulletin · 2023Trial
- Gender-Specific Pathways Linking Unemployment and Depression: A Cross-National Panel Study, 2010-2023.Mayo Clinic proceedings. Innovations, quality & outcomes · 2026Article
- Article
- Errors or Adaptations? A Critical Review of Predictive Processing in Psychiatry.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Article
- Distress signal: Self-storage facilities as sentinel spaces for community stress and mental health.Wellbeing, space and society · 2026Article
- Explainable AI for public health surveillance: investigating the persistent crisis of intentional injury mortality (suicide and homicide) in the Americas.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- [Prevalence and socio-medical performance among unemployed people in Germany - Analysis of data of the Medical Service of the Federal Employment Agency].Psychotherapie, Psychosomatik, medizinische Psychologie · 2026Article
- [Regional characteristics of diagnoses of unemployed people under socio-medical assessments by the Medical Service of the Federal Employment Agency].Gesundheitswesen (Bundesverband der Arzte des Offentlichen Gesundheitsdienstes (Germany)) · 2026Article
- Risk of Suicide Among U.S. Adults With Work Disability.American journal of preventive medicine · 2026Article
- The exploratory relationship between spiritual health and depression, anxiety, and stress in individuals who attempted suicide in Yasuj, Southwest Iran: a cross-sectional study.BMC psychiatry · 2026Article
68 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
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
purposeThere have been a number of reviews on the association+ between unemployment and suicide, but none have investigated how this relationship is influenced by duration of unemployment.
methodA systematic review and meta-analysis was conducted of those studies that assessed duration of unemployment as a risk factor for suicide. Studies considered as eligible for inclusion were population-based cohort or case-control designs; population-based ecological designs, or hospital based clinical cohort or case-control designs published in the year 1980 or later.
resultsThe review identified 16 eligible studies, out of a possible 10,358 articles resulting from a search of four databases: PubMed, Web of Knowledge, Scopus and Proquest. While all 16 studies measured unemployment duration in different ways, a common finding was that longer duration of unemployment was related to greater risk of suicide and suicide attempt. A random effects meta-analysis on a subsample of six cohort studies indicated that the pooled relative risk of suicide in relation to average follow-up time after unemployment was 1.70 (95% CI 1.22 to 2.18). However, results also suggested a possible habituation effect to unemployment over time, with the greatest risk of suicide occurring within five years of unemployment compared to the employed population (RR = 2.50, 95% CI 1.83 to 3.17). Relative risk appeared to decline in studies of those unemployed between 12 and 16 years compared to those currently employed (RR = 1.21, 95% CI 1.10 to 1.33).
conclusionFindings suggest that long-term unemployment is associated with greater incidence of suicide. Results of the meta-analysis suggest that risk is greatest in the first five years, and persists at a lower but elevated level up to 16 years after unemployment. These findings are limited by the paucity of data on this topic.
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Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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.