Unemployment, health and health services in German-speaking countries

Are Fixed-Term Jobs Bad for Your Health?: A Comparison of West-Germany and Spain

“…This job loss often results in unemployment (after one year around 13 % of fixed-term workers become unemployed in Germany and 20 % in Spain 1 ), which usually causes a deterioration of general health indicators and self-reported health status (see e.g. Schwefel 1986, Kasl/Jones 1998, Murphy/Athanasou 1999. Why do we observe this close link between unemployment and health?…”

Effects of short- and long-term unemployment on health satisfaction: evidence from German data

“…In the literature, there are several suggestions that this situation results in mental health problems, and, with time, in physical health problems (see Schwefel (1986);…”

Unemployment, Drug Use, and Health in Late Adolescence

“…In the absence of independent assess ments of health status, the present results cannot illuminate whether the stresses of un employment and job dissatisfaction lead to more illness or to more illness behaviour [Pilowsky, 1986;Schwefel, 1986;Smith, 1985], The difficulty in distinguishing between these two is of course not unique to this study; many practical goals concerned with delivery of health services do not depend upon a successful distinction.…”

“…Smith [1985] con cluded that the unemployed clearly have poorer health than the employed, and that those with poorer health have a greater risk of becoming unemployed. The evidence sug gests that unemployment does cause extra illness, although the causal links may be fur ther complicated by the possible operation of independent influences, for example pov erty or drug abuse [Olafsson and Svensson, 1986;Schwefel, 1986]. More research is con stantly called for, with prospective research and that using control samples of employed persons being the only kind which can con vincingly answer many questions.…”