Does the Impact of Unemployment on Mental Health Depend on Previous Employment Conditions? A Longitudinal Study of Swedish Workers

Wooseong Kim, Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institutet
Ninni Norlinder , Karolinska Institutet
Emelie Thern, Karolinska Institutet
Signild Kvart, Karolinska Institutet
Maria Albin, Karolinska Institutet
Theo Bodin, Karolinska Institutet
Lluís Mangot-Sala, Karolinska Institutet

Unemployment is a common adverse life event—contrary to individual and societal expectations—that often entails loss of income, reduced access to social rights, diminished social support, and a decline in social status. The detrimental health effects of unemployment are well documented, yet these consequences are not equally distributed across social groups. They depend on the socioeconomic resources available to cope with the financial and psychosocial strain that follows job loss. One key source of variation lies between standard and non-standard employees, who differ in employment security and financial resources. While the mental health effects of unemployment and precarious employment have been studied separately, less is known about how prior employment type moderates the relationship between unemployment and mental health—a question that has gained importance amid the growing prevalence of non-standard employment in Western Europe. This study addresses this gap by examining whether the mental health consequences of unemployment vary according to previous employment type. Using the register-based Swedish Work, Illness, and Labour Market Participation cohort, which includes all individuals aged 16–64 residing in Sweden in 2005, we compared the risk of a first diagnosis of mental health disorders or the first prescription of psychiatric medication between unemployed and employed individuals. We further tested interactions between unemployment and employment type (standard, sub-standard, precarious) using Cox proportional hazards regression to estimate adjusted hazard ratios with 95% confidence intervals. Our preliminary findings indicate that unemployment increases the risk of mental health disorders, with stronger associations among non-standard employees.

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 Presented in Session 49. Health and Economic Outcomes