March 21, 2011 - People who have no work to go to every day have fewer fatal car accidents, which makes sense: if you're not on the road, you can't be in a car accident. Being out of work seems to generally be healthier than working. Economics profs Hideki Ariizumi and Tammy Schirle from Wilfrid Laurier University looked at 30 years of Canadian unemployment data and mortality rates, beginning in the mid-1970s. They found that for Canadians in their 30s, an increase in the unemployment rate of one percentage point lowers mortality by nearly 2%. Here's how the researchers explain the findings:" 'People [have] fewer car accidents during recessions, they aren’t driving as much, they don’t go out drinking that much, they don’t go out partying that much... All these things lead to lower mortality rates.” When there's less money, people spend less on fast food and cigarettes, more time on leisure activities, and they get enough sleep. Go to the report.  Go to the paper. More evidence that work is harmful; well, work as it is now. What would work that didn't harm us look like, and how do we get there?

Feb. 3, 2011: Researchers in Denmark have analyzed self-report, questionnaire and medical data collected over approximately 21 years from 18,616 men and women. Participants in the Copenhagen City Heart Study at the beginning of the study did not have myocardial infarction or chronic heart failure. Individuals with the highest level of education (more than 10 years) had a 50% lower risk of developing chronic heart failure compared to people with fewer than 8 years of education. Although the research team found that being male, having hypertension and diabetes, smoking and obesity were risk factors, these factors didn't account for the excess risk of chronic heart failure. In explaining their findings, the team suggests that lower education may be linked to not complying with treatment, going to the doctor later rather than sooner, and using fewer secondary prevention treatments. Those possibilities are suggestions and were not investigated in this study. European Heart Journal, published online Dec. 8, 2010.

Source: Stefan Christensen, Rasmus Mogelvang, Merete Heitmann, and Eva Prescott, 2010. Level of education and risk of heart failure: a prospective cohort study with echocardiography evaluation, European Heart Journal, doi:10.1093/eurheart/ehq435. 

Feb. 1, 2011: Investigators in the US have examined data collected from more than 15,000 people between 1984 and 2005 to better understand the role of wealth in health. Wealth referred to assets accumulated over a lifetime (total net worth) rather than income. In this study, the risk of death was 62% higher in the lowest wealth group. In explaining the findings, the researchers suggest that, "The less wealthy may be more subject to poor physical and social environments, which can encourage health-damaging exposures." Having no safety net may cause chronic stress that triggers biological "events," which occur when the central nervous system turns on systems such as an immune response that can lead to poor health.

Source: American Journal of Epidemiology, 173(2), advance access Nov. 8, 2010 // Full study (opens in new window)