THAT'S MEN: Unemployment increases risk of mortality
UNEMPLOYMENT is bad for your health and this is especially so for men.
A study of international research findings underlines this fact and shows that it is vital for men to take care of their health when they are out of work.
Unemployment increases the mortality risk for both men and women, but the increase is far higher for men. Could the figures be distorted by differences in the health services of various countries?
Surprisingly, they are not, the study by researchers at McGill University in Canada found. The risk of death rose by about the same degree in every country, regardless of the accessibility of its health services.
What I found particularly disturbing was that unemployment damages health regardless of pre-existing conditions. In other words, unemployment itself seems to be dangerous for the health of men and women on the dole queue – but especially, as I said above, for men’s health.
The findings are frightening but need not lead to despair. It’s all a matter of taking steps to counteract the negative health effects of unemployment.
The researchers suggest that the increased stress on people who are unemployed is the source of the problem. Poverty is stressful, especially if you face huge worries about a mortgage, rent, paying for your children’s many activities, meeting fuel bills and so on. Six months of it would do a world of good to those commentators who believe the unemployed need to be starved into going back to work.
For everybody else, though, it brings stress and strain. The researchers at McGill suggest that this strain can lead to more smoking, drinking or eating, combined with poorer nutrition and poorer access than before to health services.
We have a tendency as humans to react to stressful events by seeking comfort in drinking, eating and other escapes and this can make exercise and other healthy activities all the more unattractive.
These stresses may explain why the increased health risk is relatively high if the man is under 50 years of age. These are the very men who are most likely to be in the throes of raising a family, paying a mortgage and so on.
Why does unemployment harm the health of men more than that of women? Is it because a woman with children may see herself as stepping into a full-time mother role when unemployed? Is it because a man who sees himself as the main breadwinner cannot get quite the same sense of validation out of stepping into a full-time father role?
It seems to me that these are the most likely explanations: our lives may have undergone many changes, but the psychological attachment to old roles remains strong.
Whatever the explanation, we are left needing to pay more, rather than less, attention to our health if we are unemployed. The exercise you didn’t bother to take when you had a job might be a lifesaver now. Healthy eating becomes more, and not less, important. Paying attention to your mental health also becomes more important to reduce stress.
Taking charge of your health increases your sense of control and a sense of control also contributes to the wellbeing of humans.
The findings in this research seem startling – and they are, especially at a time of high unemployment. But take them to heart and take control, and you don’t have to fear them.
* Last week I wrote about the stoical approach of Japanese people to the catastrophe which has unfolded in their country. I mentioned that despite the stoical exterior there is undoubtedly suffering within.
In response, Robert McMillen tells me: Co-incidentally, the proverb I gave people on my "Teach Yourself Irish" page in the Irish Newsyesterday was, 'Is goirt iad na deora a shileann, ach is goirte ná sin na deora nach sileann' – 'Tears that flow are bitter, but more bitter still are the tears that don't flow'.
So the Gaels knew all about stoicism!”
Padraig O’Morain is a counsellor accredited by the Irish Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy