title: Deterioration in health: What is the role of unemployment and poverty?
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  There is powerful evidence on the association between ill health and low income or low socioeconomic position of the individual. In this article we study the deterioration in self-assessed health and its determinants, focusing on unemployment and poverty status of the person. A special focus on worsening health status gives more information on the link between health and socioeconomic characteristics than static analysis of health status.
  
  
  METHODS
  The longitudinal EU Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) data covering years from 2008 to 2013 for 26 EU Member States is used to follow people for whom we have data for 4 consecutive years. We will use information on the self-rated health status of the person. Logistic regression analysis is employed to study the determinants of transition to worse health status.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The results show that unemployment (OR 1.23) and poverty (OR 1.19) before the health transition are significantly associated with worsening health even when controlled for the prior health status of the person. CONCLUSIONS THE RESULTS SUPPORT CAUSAL LINK BETWEEN UNEMPLOYMENT AND POVERTY STATUS AND SUBSEQUENT HEALTH STATUS, WHILE WE CANNOT EXCLUDE THE ROLE OF SELECTION IN THE MECHANISM UNDERSTANDING BETTER THE LINK BETWEEN HEALTH AND UNEMPLOYMENT OR POVERTY IS IMPORTANT FOR BETTER DESIGN OF HEALTH AND SOCIAL POLICIES.
authors.affiliation: National Institute for Health and Welfare, Finland Maria.Vaalavuo@thl.fi.
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Vaalavuo
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D005062:European Union; D005260:Female; D054624:Health Status Disparities; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011203:Poverty / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014478:Unemployment / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: EU; Self-rated health; panel data; poverty; unemployment