Health effects of unemployment--II. Men and women.

A comparison is made of the life situation and health effects of short term and long term unemployment in 30-50 year old urban men and women. The people under study were employed in an administrative branch of the labour market. Women's situation with reference to the labour market is more complicated than men's situation. In addition to the official, registered unemployment, only among women a substantial hidden unemployment exists. Health is measured by self reported diagnosed chronic diseases, depressive and somatic complaints; health care use i.e. physician consultations, the use of prescribed medicines and being under treatment of a medical specialist. Independent from ordinary confounders like education, age, having a partner etc. in the case of registered official unemployment an adverse health effect of unemployment equally exists for both men and women. The impact of such unemployment shows far more similarities than differences between men and women. Risk factors and paths leading from unemployment to ill-health are also the same among registered unemployed women and men. Contrary to common assumptions, the results indicate that the hidden unemployed form an empirically different category among the unemployed according to health status and to risk factors. The social context of the women's life situation is discussed to explore explanations for these results.