SynthesisAnnals of epidemiology2015
Misery loves company? A meta-regression examining aggregate unemployment rates and the unemployment-mortality association.
Synthesis in Annals of epidemiology, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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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.
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Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Associations Between Employment and Health Outcomes: A Systematic Review of Reviews.Journal of occupational rehabilitation · 2026Pooled it
- Impact of Political Economy on Population Health: A Systematic Review of Reviews.American journal of public health · 2019Pooled it
- 3for1 intervention program-short-term psychotherapy, job coaching, and peer support for unemployed individuals facing psychological distress: a community case study.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- Effectiveness of a three-component intervention supporting unemployed individuals with mental health issues in their job search and mental health recovery (3for1): study protocol of a non-randomized controlled study.BMC public health · 2024Article
- Labour market status and mortality risk: The Finnmark cohort study 1987-2017.Scandinavian journal of public health · 2024Article
- The long-term impact of the COVID-19 unemployment shock on life expectancy and mortality rates.Journal of economic dynamics & control · 2023Article
- Unemployment and COVID-19-related mortality: a historical cohort study of 50,000 COVID-19 patients in Fars, Iran.Epidemiology and health · 2022Article
- Projected All-Cause Deaths Attributable to COVID-19-Related Unemployment in the United States.American journal of public health · 2021Article
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
purposeIndividual-level unemployment has been consistently linked to poor health and higher mortality, but some scholars have suggested that the negative effect of job loss may be lower during times and in places where aggregate unemployment rates are high. We review three logics associated with this moderation hypothesis: health selection, social isolation, and unemployment stigma. We then test whether aggregate unemployment rates moderate the individual-level association between unemployment and all-cause mortality.
methodsWe use six meta-regression models (each using a different measure of the aggregate unemployment rate) based on 62 relative all-cause mortality risk estimates from 36 studies (from 15 nations).
resultsWe find that the magnitude of the individual-level unemployment-mortality association is approximately the same during periods of high and low aggregate-level unemployment. Model coefficients (exponentiated) were 1.01 for the crude unemployment rate (P = .27), 0.94 for the change in unemployment rate from the previous year (P = .46), 1.01 for the deviation of the unemployment rate from the 5-year running average (P = .87), 1.01 for the deviation of the unemployment rate from the 10-year running average (P = .73), 1.01 for the deviation of the unemployment rate from the overall average (measured as a continuous variable; P = .61), and showed no variation across unemployment levels when the deviation of the unemployment rate from the overall average was measured categorically. Heterogeneity between studies was significant (P < .001), supporting the use of the random effects model.
conclusionsWe found no strong evidence to suggest that unemployment experiences change when macroeconomic conditions change. Efforts to ameliorate the negative social and economic consequences of unemployment should continue to focus on the individual and should be maintained regardless of periodic changes in macroeconomic conditions.
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Registered trials
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