Unemployment, underweight, and obesity: Findings from Understanding Society (UKHLS)

Elevated morbidity and mortality among jobseekers may be partly explained by adiposity, but previous studies of unemployment and body mass index (BMI), which have usually modelled associations as linear, have produced inconsistent results. However, both underweight and obesity are associated with mortality, and both weight loss and weight gain associated with a stressful environment. If unemployment is associated with both underweight and obesity for different subgroups, these associations may previously have masked each other, whilst affecting health through divergent pathways. We investigated whether there is a previously overlooked U-shaped association of unemployment and BMI, which could help explain jobseekers’ elevated morbidity and mortality, and identify groups vulnerable to underweight and obesity during unemployment. We used multinomial models to simultaneously investigate associations of unemployment with BMI-defined underweight, overweight, and obesity in 10,737 working-age UK adults from Understanding Society (UKHLS) in 2010–12. Moderating impacts of unemployment duration, demographic factors and smoking were explored. Current jobseekers were more likely to be underweight (Odds ratio (OR): 4.05, 95% confidence interval (CI): 2.12–7.73) and less likely to be overweight (OR: 0.71, CI: 0.55, 0.92) adjusted for gender, age, education, health, smoking and physical activity, while unemployed non-smokers had increased odds of obesity (OR: 1.52, CI: 1.06–2.18). Underweight and overweight associations were more apparent for longer-term jobseekers, men, and jobseekers from lower-income households. We conclude that unemployment is associated with underweight and, in nonsmokers, obesity. Results show the unemployment-adiposity relationship cannot be properly studied assuming unidirectionality of effects, and suggest unemployment may affect health of different groups via divergent adiposity-mediated pathways

Promoting community-led responses to violence against immigrant and refugee women in metropolitan and regional Australia

This state of knowledge paper examines a broad range of national and international research to present the current knowledge about family violence against immigrant and refugee women. While the paper identifies critical evidence on the topic, it acknowledges that much of the available literature has methodological issues, including incomplete and inconclusive prevalence data; small sample sizes; and conceptualising family violence in ways that are not recognised by immigrant and refugee communities. The paper finds: Overall immigrant and refugee report similar forms of family violence as women from non-immigrant backgrounds, however there are some differences in the types of violence experienced and the structural contexts where it takes place. The constraints produced by immigration policies are of significant concern, where women depend on perpetrators for economic security and residency rights. Many immigrant and refugee women are motivated to resolve family violence without ending relationships and breaking up families, for reasons including immigration concerns and family and community pressures. There is scant evidence that the increase in criminal justice responses to family violence, such as “mandatory arrest” and “pro-prosecution” approaches, are helpful for immigrant women, and may deter them from seeking assistance in crisis situations. The paper also identifies key gaps in literature on this issue, particularly in connection to the ways immigration policies, structural disadvantage and location interact with immigrant and refugee women’s experiences of family violence