Long-term unemployment and suicide: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Long-term breastfeeding, including exclusive breastfeeding for six months and continuation of breastfeeding with complementary food until two years of age, has been recommended by the World Health Organization. However, despite the clear benefits of long-term breastfeeding (six months and beyond), the rates of breastfeeding still continue to remain low. Although there are some individual interventional studies that aimed to increase prolonged breastfeeding rates among both multiparous and primiparous women, there is no systematic review or meta-analysis to examine the effectiveness of those interventions among primiparous women who had no previous breastfeeding experience

Long-Term Unemployment Is Associated with Short Telomeres in 31-Year-Old Men: An Observational Study in the Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1966

Life stress resulting from early-life experiences and domestic stress is linked with shorter leukocyte telomere length (LTL), but evidence on employment-related stress is scarce. We explored whether unemployment in early adulthood is associated with shorter LTL, a potential biomarker of premature aging.We used data from 5620 men and women belonging to the Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1966. Individually registered unemployment days in 1995-97 were compared with data on biological, behavioral and socioeconomic health predictors and existing medical conditions obtained by surveys and clinical examinations at follow-up in 1997-98. Mean LTL at follow-up was measured by multiplex quantitative real-time PCR. We calculated odds ratios and their 95% confidence intervals (CI) of belonging to the sex-stratified shortest decile of standardized relative mean LTL according to the categories of: 0, <260, <500 and over 500 unemployment days, representing 0, <1, <2 and over 2 calendar years.Among men, unemployment exceeding 500 days during three years was associated with having shorter LTL at follow-up, compared to being continuously employed. The corresponding odds ratio was 2.61 (95% CI 1.16 to 5.85) in the fully adjusted model. Such an association was not found among women in this study.Long-term unemployment in early adulthood is associated with shorter LTL among men

Employment history indicators and mortality in a nested case-control study from the Spanish WORKing life social security (WORKss) cohort

Employment has transitioned from stable to more flexible schemes. Little is known about the effects of dynamic working lives and mortality. We examined the association of employment, unemployment and inactivity on mortality among workers born in 1926–1988, in a nested case-control study of workers from the Spanish WORKss cohort. Cases were all deaths that occurred during 2004–2013 and controls were living persons, matched for sex and age at the time the case occurred. We had information on employment from 1981 to 2013. Logistic regression was used to measure the associations between the 3 employment history indicators separately by sex. There were 53,989 cases and an equal number of controls (n = 107,978). More than 16 years employed showed a protective effect against mortality in women (OR = 0.88, 95%CI: 0.81, 0.94) and men (OR = 0.76, 95%CI: 0.70, 0.79). The number of spells and time in unemployment and inactivity were significantly related to mortality in men, but not women. Sensitivity analyses by labor relationship showed stronger associations of unemployment (OR = 1.42, 95%CI: 1.13, 1.78) and inactivity (OR = 1.34; 95%CI: 1.09, 1.65) for temporary workers. Employment gaps are detrimental to health and have worse effects if the gaps occur without unemployment benefits or after temporary contracts. These results may drive improvement of labor and social policies that protect workers against the potential negative effects of dynamic work lives