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Non-employment histories of middle-aged men and women who died from alcohol-related causes: a longitudinal retrospective study

Paljarvi, Tapio

, Martikainen, Pekka, Leinonen, Taina, Pensola, Tiina and Makela, Pia 2014. Non-employment histories of middle-aged men and women who died from alcohol-related causes: a longitudinal retrospective study. PLoS ONE 9 (5) , e98620. 10.1371/journal.pone.0098620

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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0098620

Abstract

Background Long-term patterning of non-employment among problem drinkers is poorly understood. We determined the level and timing of non-employment, and the relative contribution of various types of non-employment among middle-aged persons who died of alcohol-related causes. Methods We conducted a longitudinal retrospective register-based study of Finnish men and women aged 45–64 years who died of alcohol-related causes (n = 15 552) or other causes (n = 39 166) in the period 2000–07, or who survived (n = 204 422) until the end of 2007. We traced back the number of days in employment and non-employment for up to 17 years before death or before the end of the study period for the survivors. Results The majority (≥56%) of persons who died of alcohol-related causes were in employment up to ten years before death. Over the 17-year period before death, those who died of alcohol-related causes were in employment on average two years less (mean 6.3 years, 95%CI 6.2–6.4) than those dying of other causes (8.2, 8.1–8.3), and five years less than survivors (11.6, 11.5–11.7), when sex and age were adjusted for. The relative role of various types of non-employment differed markedly across the two mortality groups. Among those who died of alcohol-related causes, unemployment accounted for 54% of the total burden of non-employment, in comparison with 29% among those who died of other causes. In contrast, disability pension accounted for 41% of the total burden of non-employment among those who died of alcohol-related causes, but 65% among those who died of other causes. Conclusions The results indicate the feasibility of preventing movement out of employment among middle-aged men and women with severe alcohol-related harm, provided that they are identified early on during their working careers and offered effective interventions.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Medicine
Subjects:	R Medicine > RA Public aspects of medicine > RA0421 Public health. Hygiene. Preventive Medicine
Additional Information:	© 2014 Paljärvi et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Publisher:	Public Library of Science
ISSN:	1932-6203
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	30 March 2016
Date of Acceptance:	6 May 2014
Last Modified:	07 May 2023 12:48
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/80711