Year: 2010
Type: dissertation
Abstract: During the last century, the combined effects of improvements in living and working\\nconditions and advances in medicine and health care have led to a consistently increasing\\nlife expectancy in the European Union. In 2007 in the EU, the life expectancy of a\\nnewborn boy at birth was 76.1 years and of a newborn girl 82.2 years. Life expectancy\\nis, however, not equally distributed in society. Persons with a lower level of education,\\na lower occupational class, or a lower level of income tend to die at younger age, and\\nto have, within their shorter lives, a higher prevalence of all kinds of health problems.\\nThis leads to tremendous differences between socioeconomic groups in the number of\\nyears that persons can expect to live in good health. In Europe, differences in healthy\\nlife expectancy typically amount to 10 years or more, counted from birth. According\\nto many, such differences in health are unacceptable, and represent one of Europe\\xe2\\x80\\x99s\\ngreatest challenges for public health.\\nUnemployed persons are a specific socioeconomically disadvantaged group. The\\nrelationship between unemployment and poor health has been well established,\\nas demonstrated by a higher prevalence of illness and disability and a higher\\nmortality among unemployed persons. Selection and causation may contribute to\\nthese inequalities in health among employed and unemployed persons. Selection may\\nact through two different pathways: workers with a poor health may be more likely to\\nleave the labour force, and unemployed persons with a poor health may be less likely\\nto enter the workforce. Causation may also act in two different ways. Leaving the\\nworkforce may have a negative influence on health of the ex-workers. The other way\\naround, gaining paid employment may have a positive influence on health.\\nParagraph 1.2 (Health and Work) gives an overview of the current state of knowledge\\nconcerning the influence of health on entering or leaving the workforce. Paragraph 1.3\\n(Work and Health) is focused on the effect of gaining paid employment on health.\\nParagraph 1.4 (Health promotion among the unemployed) describes the current\\nevidence on the effectiveness of health promotion interventions among unemployed\\npersons for re-employment.
Author: Merel Schuring
Language: English
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2128774010