Late redundancy ‘doubles’ stroke and heart attack risk

People who are made redundant or lose their job for other reasons late in their career are more than twice as likely to suffer a stroke or heart attack, new research claims.

A report published in today’s Occupational and Environmental Medicine journal found that four per cent of people who lose their jobs between the ages of 61 and 71 suffered a heart attack, compared to only two per cent of people who retired of their own volition.

In addition, six per cent of people who become redundant or get fired between the ages of 61 and 71 suffered from strokes, while only one per cent of individuals who either retired or stopped working for other reasons experienced strokes.

The researchers from the Yale University of Medicine, US, studied 12,500 people between 1992 and 2002, all of whom were in work.

By 2002 1,200 people had retired, 600 had died of natural causes, and 1,410 had stopped work for other reasons. Of the remainder 582 US residents had lose their jobs.

The report’s authors indicate that additional health factors such as diabetes, whether test subjects smoked, obesity and high blood pressure were all taken into account.

“For many individuals, late career job loss is an exceptionally stressful experience with the potential for provoking numerous undesirable outcomes, including [heart attacks and stroke],” the authors wrote.

“Based on our results, the true costs of unemployment exceed the obvious economic costs and include substantial health consequences as well,” they added.

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