Unemployment and its association with health-relevant actions: investigating the role of time perspective with German census data

Schunck R, Rogge B. Unemployment and its association with health-relevant actions: investigating the role of time perspective with German census data. International Journal of Public Health. 2010;55(4):271-278.Objective In this study, we seek to explain how unemployment is related to an increase in health-damaging actions. A short time perspective, that is an orientation towards the present rather than the future, is hypothesised to account for this effect. The concept of time perspective is located within an action theoretical framework and the hypothesis is tested empirically. Methods We investigated the unemployed people’s smoking behaviour and body-mass index (BMI) using German microcensus data from 2003. Data from 77,766 respondents (88.60% employed and 11.40% unemployed) were analysed. Multivariate regression analysis was applied to test our hypotheses. Results Unemployment is associated with a 46% higher probability to smoke and with a 0.37 unit increase in BMI compared to employment. The likelihood of smoking steadily increases with the duration of unemployment, while only unemployment spells of 4 years and longer are significantly related to BMI. Yet, the smoking probability of those unemployed who have a long time perspective is 74% lower and their BMI is 1.81 lower than those who do not have a long time perspective. Conclusion Unemployment is negatively associated with health-relevant actions. This effect varies according to persons’ time perspectives. Our approach delivers an innovative view on why unemployed individuals exercise more health-damaging actions than the employed

No Causal Effect of Unemployment on Smoking? A German Panel Study

Schunck R, Rogge B. No Causal Effect of Unemployment on Smoking? A German Panel Study. International Journal of Public Health. 2012;57(6):867-874.Objectives This study analyses the effects of different unemployment durations on smoking behaviour in Germany by investigating smoking take-up, relapse, quitting and smoking intensity. Methods Longitudinal data from the German Socio-Economic Panel from the years 1998, 2001, 2002, 2004, 2006, and 2008 were used to examine the effect of unemployment (52,940 observations from 17,028 respondents, aged 17–65 years). Unemployment duration was measured at 1–6, 7–12, 13–24, and 24+ months. Effects were estimated using zero-inflated negative binomial regressions and fixed effects logistic panel regressions. Results The zero-inflated negative binomial regression models suggest that the likelihood of smoking increases with unemployment, while smoking intensity is not affected. However, fixed effects logistic regression models demonstrate that unemployment is neither a significant predictor for taking up smoking, relapsing, nor quitting. Conclusions The results indicate that in Germany, there is no direct causal effect of unemployment on smoking behaviour. The observed relationship between smoking and unemployment appears to be driven by stable, unobserved differences between employed and unemployed respondents