Disruptive life events and health

Abstract

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.