Lose your job, die early?

Getting laid off can be bad for your health -- perhaps lethally so -- according to an ambitious study of more than 22,000 government workers laid off in Finland during the 1990s, New Scientist reports:

A team of researchers used employer and death records to study the workers from 1991 to 2000. Between 1991 and 1993, unemployment in Finland nearly tripled - to 16.6 per cent - before a national recession ended in 1996.

Those hit hardest by layoffs - losing more than 18 per cent of their colleagues during the worst years of recession - suffered the highest risk of death from cardiovascular disease. They were five times as likely to die of cardiovascular disease in the next four years as those who suffered no layoffs.

And over the 7.5-year study, they were twice as likely to die from cardiovascular conditions than those in a steady work environment. ...

Employees who weathered the most severe downsizing also reported more health-related absences than workers untouched by downsizing. But the change was most pronounced in permanent employees. That suggests temporary workers, whose jobs are less secure, may simply go to work sick, say the researchers.