Unemployment may be just as bad for heart as smoking

Unemployment may be just as bad for heart as smoking

    Did you know that losing a job repeatedly could be just as bad for your heart as smoking, high blood pressure, or diabetes? An extensive study analysed cases of more than 13,000 adults between the ages of 50 and 75 and followed them for 18 years.
    The researchers found a strong link between job loss and heart attack risk that increased with each successive period of unemployment. The difference in heart risk between someone who has never lost a job and someone who has lost four or more was found to be the same as that between someone who smokes and someone who doesn’t, or someone with diabetes and someone without.
    The results showed that after one job loss, heart attack risk was about 22% greater for the unemployed than it was for those still working. And to make things worse, by the time a participant had experienced four or more periods of unemployment, the risk was 63% greater. The study did adjust for other heart attack risk factors, and found that overall, unemployed people have a 35% greater risk of heart attacks than people who were employed. Previous studies have also shown a link, but this is one of the longest-term studies ever done, and was thus able to show how multiple job losses can affect health.

A job can offer respite