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. 2021 Feb 4;21(1):290.
doi: 10.1186/s12889-021-10324-8.

The interplay of gender, social context, and long-term unemployment effects on subjective health trajectories

Laura Altweck  1 , Stefanie Hahm  2 , Holger Muehlan  2 , Tobias Gfesser  3 , Christine Ulke  3 , Sven Speerforck  3 , Georg Schomerus  3 , Manfred E Beutel  4 , Elmar Brähler  4 , Silke Schmidt  2
Affiliations

The interplay of gender, social context, and long-term unemployment effects on subjective health trajectories

Laura Altweck et al. BMC Public Health. .

Abstract

Background: While a strong negative impact of unemployment on health has been established, the present research examined the lesser studied interplay of gender, social context and job loss on health trajectories.

Methods: Data from the German Socio-Economic Panel was used, which provided a representative sample of 6838 participants. Using latent growth modelling the effects of gender, social context (East vs. West Germans), unemployment (none, short-term or long-term), and their interactions were examined on health (single item measures of self-rated health and life satisfaction respectively).

Results: Social context in general significantly predicted the trajectories of self-rated health and life satisfaction. Most notably, data analysis revealed that West German women reported significantly lower baseline values of self-rated health following unemployment and did not recover to the levels of their East German counterparts. Only long-term, not short-term unemployment was related to lower baseline values of self-rated health, whereas, in relation to baseline values of life satisfaction, both types of unemployment had a similar negative effect.

Conclusions: In an economic crisis, individuals who already carry a higher burden, and not only those most directly affected economically, may show the greatest health effects.

Keywords: Gender; Growth modelling; Health; Life satisfaction; Panel data; Social context; Unemployment.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Statistical Model
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Descriptive trajectories of self-rated health (waves 1992, 1994, 1996)
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Descriptive trajectories of life satisfaction (waves 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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