By Matthew Heimer
Recent research into longevity has unearthed a troubling trend in the U.S.—higher mortality rates among less-educated women. Demographers and public-health experts have found a strong connection between joblessness and early death within this cohort, a fact that has led some commentators to take something of a logical leap and conclude that early retirement is bad for your health. A new study, published recently by the Center for Demography and Ecology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, dives into the topic and adds a different insight to the discussion: Falling out of the workforce during prime working years may be the bigger health threat to women.
The new report relies on a database of life histories of more than 10,000 people who graduated from Wisconsin high schools in 1957. The three sociologists who worked on the study conclude that there is a noticeable connection between periods of unemployment and higher mortality rates, though only for women, not for men. For women, “inconsistent labor force participation across mid-life,” which the study defined as ages 35 to 54, was associated with a greater risk of death; so was loss of access to employer-provided health insurance during those years.
The researchers express surprise that these factors are greater for women than for men, since previous research has suggested that job losses are more threatening and disruptive for men than for women.