The Impact of Late-Career Job Loss on Myocardial Infarction and Stroke: A 10-year follow-up using the Health and Retirement Survey

OBJECTIVE: Involuntary job loss is a major life event associated with social, economic, behavioural, and health outcomes, for which older workers are elevated risk. Our aim in this study was to assess the 10-year risk of myocardial infarction (MI) and stroke associated with involuntary job loss among workers over 50 years of age. METHODS: Analyzing data from the nationally representative U.S. Health and Retirement Survey (HRS), we used Cox proportional hazards analysis to estimate whether workers who suffered involuntary job loss were at higher risk for subsequent MI and stroke than individuals who continued to work. Our sample included 4,301 individuals who were employed at the 1992 study baseline. RESULTS: Over the 10-year study frame, 582 individuals (13.5 of the sample) experienced involuntary job loss. After controlling for established predictors of our outcomes, we found that displaced workers had a more than two-fold increase in the risk of subsequent MI (Hazard ratio HR = 2.48; 95 Confidence Interval CI = 1.49, 4.14) and stroke (HR = 2.43; CI = 1.18, 4.98) relative to working persons. CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that the true costs of late-career unemployment exceed financial deprivation, and include substantial health consequences. Physicians who treat individuals who lose jobs as they near retirement should consider the loss of employment a potential risk factor for adverse vascular health changes. Policy makers and program planners should also be aware of the risks of job loss, so that programmatic interventions can be designed and implemented to ease the multiple burdens of joblessness.

Job Loss/Health Risk/MYOCARDIAL-INFARCTION/Stroke

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