Employment Status and Alcohol-Attributable Mortality Risk—A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Celine Saul, Shannon Lange and Charlotte Probst
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Celine Saul: Heidelberg Institute of Global Health (HIGH), Medical Faculty and University Hospital, Heidelberg University, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany
Shannon Lange: Institute for Mental Health Policy Research, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), 33 Ursula Franklin Street, Toronto, ON M5S 2S1, Canada
Charlotte Probst: Heidelberg Institute of Global Health (HIGH), Medical Faculty and University Hospital, Heidelberg University, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 12, 1-10

Abstract: Being unemployed has been linked to various health burdens. In particular, there appears to be an association between unemployment and alcohol-attributable deaths. However, risk estimates presented in a previous review were based on only two studies. Thus, we estimated updated sex-stratified alcohol-attributable mortality risks for unemployed compared with employed individuals. A systematic literature search was conducted in August 2020 using the following databases: Embase, MEDLINE, PsycINFO, and Web of Science. The relative risk (RR) of dying from an alcohol-attributable cause of death for unemployed compared with employed individuals was summarized using sex-stratified random-effects DerSimonian-Laird meta-analyses. A total of 10 studies were identified, comprising about 14.4 million women and 19.0 million men, among whom there were about 3147 and 17,815 alcohol-attributable deaths, respectively. The pooled RRs were 3.64 (95% confidence interval (CI): 2.04–6.66) and 4.93 (95% CI 3.45–7.05) for women and men, respectively. The findings of our quantitative synthesis provide evidence that being unemployed is associated with an over three-fold higher risk of alcohol-attributable mortality compared with being employed. Consequently, a global public health strategy connecting brief interventions and specialized care with social services assisting those currently unemployed is needed.

Keywords: employment status; socioeconomic status; inequality; alcohol-attributable mortality; systematic literature review and meta-analysis; alcohol use; mortality; public health (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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