ArticleSocial psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology2026
Mental health impacts of voluntary and involuntary unemployment among Australians in later working life with and without disability.
Article in Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
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
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
purposeEmployment is a key determinant of mental health, with evidence suggesting greater benefits for people with disability relative to people without disability. However, little is known about how retirement impacts mental health for people with disability. This study examined the mental health effects associated with voluntary and involuntary changes in employment status for adults in later working life and explored differences by disability status.
methodsWe used 13 waves of data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey, comprising 9,162 adults aged 45-69 years. Employment status was classified as employed, voluntarily unemployed, or involuntarily unemployed. Mental health was measured using the Mental Health Inventory (MHI-5). Effects of employment transitions on mental health were estimated using fixed effects regression models, including interaction terms to explore differential effects for people with persistent disability, fluctuating disability, or no disability.
resultsFor people with persistent and fluctuating disability, both involuntary (persistent: -4.51, 95% CI -6.79, -2.24; fluctuating: -4.98, 95% CI -6.78, -3.19) and voluntary unemployment (persistent: -3.62, 95% CI -5.43, -1.82; fluctuating: -1.26, 95% CI -2.54, 0.01) were associated with poorer mental health compared to employment. For people without disability, only involuntary unemployment was associated with poorer mental health (-2.45, 95% CI -3.80, -0.69).
conclusionOur findings highlight negative mental health effects associated with both voluntary and involuntary unemployment for people with disability, whereas only involuntary unemployment had a negative effect for people without disability. Policy efforts are needed to support people with disability when transitioning out of employment.
Indexed as
Identifiers
42644886What 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.