Associations between unemployment and heavy episodic drinking from adolescence to midlife in Sweden and Finland

Berg, Noora; Kiviruusu, Olli; Huurre, Taina; Lintonen, Tomi; Virtanen, Pekka; Hammarström, Anne

doi:10.1093/eurpub/ckx207

Cited by 12 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…Based on wave 5 of the Lifelines Cohort Study (gathered between 2016 and 2019), the following drinking patterns were assessed: "Abstinence", "Moderate drinking" and "Heavy or Binge drinking" (including either " > 1.5 glasses/ day on average" or "4 or more drinks/occasion" in the last month [34]).…”

Section: Pre-pandemic Alcohol Consumptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Changes in anxiety and depression symptoms during the Covid-19 lockdown in the Netherlands. The moderating role of pre-existing mental health, employment situation and alcohol consumption

Mangot-Sala

Smidt

Liefbroer

2023

Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol

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Purpose Evidence suggests an increase of depression and anxiety symptoms during the Covid-19 pandemic but most studies relied on cross-sectional designs and/or small samples, and they often overlooked subgroup effects in the impact of the lockdown. We investigated the effect of the pandemic on depression and anxiety symptoms, and whether it differed by employment situation and alcohol consumption. Methods This longitudinal study used 23 waves of the Covid-Questionnaire (April 2020—July 2021), within the Lifelines cohort from the Netherlands (n = 76,254). Depression and anxiety symptoms were combined in a “mental health score”. Linear fixed-effects models were fitted to analyse trends in mental health throughout the observation period. The moderating role of pre-existing mental health, employment situation, and alcohol consumption was tested. Results Depression and anxiety symptoms fluctuated considerably during the observation period, with clear peaks in winter 2021, during the strictest lockdown period. Moreover, temporal patterns differed by employment situation and alcohol consumption patterns, suggesting that various subgroups reacted to the pandemic and the lockdown in different ways. Conclusion Lockdowns increased depression and anxiety symptoms in the Netherlands. The effect was particularly strong for unemployed individuals, those with risky alcohol consumption patterns and those with pre-existing mental health disorders.

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Section: Pre-pandemic Alcohol Consumptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Changes in anxiety and depression symptoms during the Covid-19 lockdown in the Netherlands. The moderating role of pre-existing mental health, employment situation and alcohol consumption

Mangot-Sala

Smidt

Liefbroer

2023

Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol

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“…Previous studies on risky alcohol intake and alcohol‐related problems have generally, but not consistently, demonstrated a positive association with youth unemployment . However, research has also found evidence for the reverse effect, as well as no effect . Consequently, the relationship between unemployment and alcohol is complex, as risky alcohol intake appears to be both a risk factor and a consequence of unemployment .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Long‐term effects of youth unemployment on alcohol‐related morbidity

2019

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Aim To test if exposure to unemployment in young adulthood is associated with an increased risk of later alcohol‐related morbidity. Design A nation‐wide register‐linked longitudinal population‐based study. Setting Sweden. Participants A total of 16 490 individuals born between 1967 and 1978, who had participated in the Labour Force Survey between the ages of 16–24 years during 1990–95. Measurement Information on the outcome of alcohol‐related morbidity was obtained from the National Hospital Discharge Register. The Swedish index of alcohol‐related in‐patient care was used to define the outcome. Information on sex, age and country of birth, as well as parents’ level of education, socio‐economic status and alcohol‐related health problems, were also obtained. Average follow‐up time was 22 years. Cox regression analysis was used to obtain hazard ratios (HR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI). Findings Compared with full‐time students, individuals who experienced short‐ and long‐term unemployment spells at a young age were at an increased risk of later alcohol‐related morbidity; < 3 months (HR = 2.04, 95% CI = 1.35–3.09), 3–6 months (HR = 2.20, 95% CI = 1.29–3.75) and > 6 months (HR = 1.99, 95% CI = 1.06–3.71) of unemployment, after adjusting for several important individual and family level covariates. Conclusion In Sweden, a nation‐wide register‐based study with a 22‐year follow‐up suggests that being unemployed in young adulthood is associated with an increased risk of alcohol‐related morbidity later in life.

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“…The first topic I will address here concerns the direction of causality. This issue has been particularly debated in relation to employment and alcohol consumption [84,85]. Does unemployment lead to alcohol abuse?…”

Section: Methodological Issuesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…All in all, after decades of academic discussion, there is certain consensus that both causation and selection operate simultaneously, in a bidirectional association [56,84], and the relative importance of one or the other is highly context-dependent [89]. Furthermore, a third causal element has been increasingly considered in recent years: "indirect health selection", i.e., common distal causes (usually early exposures in life, such as childhood deprivation or unmeasured health-or SES-related variables) that may, in turn, affect both health (behaviours) and SES.…”

Section: Causation Vs Selectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…"Heavy Drinking" (HD) was defined as having more than 1.5 drinks per day on average (or the approximate equivalent of 15 grams of pure alcohol/day) [140] in the past month. "Binge Drinking" (BD) was defined as "drinking on average ≥5 standard units or more in one occasion (≥4 for women)" in the past month [84]. For both outcomes, a categorical variable was constructed with 3 categories: "abstainer", "moderate drinking" and "heavy drinking" for HD, and "abstainer", "non-binge drinking" and "binge drinking" for BD.…”

Section: Measurementsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Disruptive life events and health

Mangot Sala

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The publication may also be distributed here under the terms of Article 25fa of the Dutch Copyright Act, indicated by the "Taverne" license. More information can be found on the University of Groningen website: https://www.rug.nl/library/open-access/self-archiving-pure/taverneamendment.14 15 their families too [7]. Moreover, disruptive events can also occur at a collective level, when whole populations are exposed. That is the case of macroeconomic crises, or a world-wide pandemic [29], which, in turn, may trigger subsequent individual events (e.g. unemployment rates may rise due to economic crises, or a pandemic may lead to numerous health-related events). Please note that, although this dissertation focuses on disruptive life events, life transitions are still very relevant for this study as well. In fact, numerous examples suggest that life transitions and disruptive life events constantly intertwine and, therefore, should be analysed jointly: for instance, the negative impact of unemployment may be buffered by having a safe family environment that provides the needed emotional and financial support [30]. Similarly, a stable job may help better navigate economic crises [26] and be less negatively affected by, for instance, sudden transformations in the labour market.The following chapters analyse how individual (unemployment) and collective (the COVID-19 pandemic) disruptive life events affect health behaviours (alcohol consumption) and outcomes (depression and anxiety symptoms, feelings of loneliness, and changes in body mass index) in the northern provinces of the Netherlands. Moreover, I will analyse how certain life transitions, socioeconomic factors, and individual characteristics may modify the effects of such events on health. Unemployment is the first disruptive life event that will be analysed (chapters 2 and 3 will focus on the reciprocal association between unemployment and alcohol consumption), before shifting the analyses towards the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact in terms of health behaviours (chapter 4) and outcomes (chapters 5-7). Both disruptive life events are introduced in the following sections.

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Associations between unemployment and heavy episodic drinking from adolescence to midlife in Sweden and Finland

Cited by 12 publications

References 29 publications

Changes in anxiety and depression symptoms during the Covid-19 lockdown in the Netherlands. The moderating role of pre-existing mental health, employment situation and alcohol consumption

Changes in anxiety and depression symptoms during the Covid-19 lockdown in the Netherlands. The moderating role of pre-existing mental health, employment situation and alcohol consumption

Long‐term effects of youth unemployment on alcohol‐related morbidity

Disruptive life events and health

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