title: Misery loves company? A meta-regression examining aggregate unemployment rates and the unemployment-mortality association.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Individual-level unemployment has been consistently linked to poor health and higher mortality, but some scholars have suggested that the negative effect of job loss may be lower during times and in places where aggregate unemployment rates are high. We review three logics associated with this moderation hypothesis: health selection, social isolation, and unemployment stigma. We then test whether aggregate unemployment rates moderate the individual-level association between unemployment and all-cause mortality.
  
  
  METHODS
  We use six meta-regression models (each using a different measure of the aggregate unemployment rate) based on 62 relative all-cause mortality risk estimates from 36 studies (from 15 nations).
  
  
  RESULTS
  We find that the magnitude of the individual-level unemployment-mortality association is approximately the same during periods of high and low aggregate-level unemployment. Model coefficients (exponentiated) were 1.01 for the crude unemployment rate (P = .27), 0.94 for the change in unemployment rate from the previous year (P = .46), 1.01 for the deviation of the unemployment rate from the 5-year running average (P = .87), 1.01 for the deviation of the unemployment rate from the 10-year running average (P = .73), 1.01 for the deviation of the unemployment rate from the overall average (measured as a continuous variable; P = .61), and showed no variation across unemployment levels when the deviation of the unemployment rate from the overall average was measured categorically. Heterogeneity between studies was significant (P < .001), supporting the use of the random effects model.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We found no strong evidence to suggest that unemployment experiences change when macroeconomic conditions change. Efforts to ameliorate the negative social and economic consequences of unemployment should continue to focus on the individual and should be maintained regardless of periodic changes in macroeconomic conditions.
authors: Department of Sociology, University of Louisville, Louisville, KY. Electronic address: david.roelfs@louisville.edu.
authors: David J
authors: DJ
authors: Roelfs
authors: Department of Sociology, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
authors: Eran
authors: E
authors: Shor
authors: Department of Sociology, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
authors: Aharon
authors: A
authors: Blank
authors: Department of Psychiatry, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY.
authors: Joseph E
authors: JE
authors: Schwartz
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009026:Mortality / Q000639:trends*; D015995:Prevalence; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012934:Social Isolation / Q000523:psychology; D013315:Stress, Psychological; D014478:Unemployment / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*
keywords: Meta-analysis; Mortality; Unemployment