Health Effects of Unemployment Benefit Program Generosity

Objectives. We assessed the impact of unemployment benefit programs on the health of the unemployed.Methods. We linked US state law data on maximum allowable unemployment benefit levels between 1985 and 2008 to individual self-rated health for heads of households in the Panel Study of Income Dynamics and implemented state and year fixed-effect models.Results. Unemployment was associated with increased risk of reporting poor health among men in both linear probability (b = 0.0794; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.0623, 0.0965) and logistic models (odds ratio = 2.777; 95% CI = 2.294, 3.362), but this effect is lower when the generosity of state unemployment benefits is high (b for interaction between unemployment and benefits = −0.124; 95% CI = −0.197, −0.0523). A 63% increase in benefits completely offsets the impact of unemployment on self-reported health.Conclusions. Results suggest that unemployment benefits may significantly alleviate the adverse health effects of unemployment among men.An extensive body of research has linked job loss to poorer physical and mental health1 and higher risk of premature death.2 Recent literature has focused on establishing the causal nature of this association,2–8 but few studies have explored whether specific social programs modify the health effects of job loss. Understanding the impact of policies is useful for identifying intervention approaches to reduce the harms associated with unemployment, but they may also reveal some of the mechanisms explaining the association between job loss and health. Job loss is associated with a substantial loss in earnings.9 If earnings losses are the primary mechanism linking job loss to health, we would expect generous unemployment benefit programs to mitigate some of the negative consequences of job loss on health. On the other hand, unemployment benefits may be less effective if job loss influences health primarily through nonfinancial mechanisms, such as the loss of a time structure for the day, decreased self-esteem, chronic stress,10 or changes in health-related behavior.A few studies have investigated the association between unemployment benefit receipt and self-reported health measures.11–13 For example, Rodriguez11 analyzed self-reported health data from Britain, Germany, and the United States and found that unemployed workers in receipt of unemployment benefits do not have statistically higher likelihood of reporting poor health compared with the employed, while unemployed workers receiving no benefits are in worse health than these 2 groups. She concluded that benefit receipt moderates the association between unemployment and poor subjective health. Similarly, McLeod et al.14 found that unemployed US workers not receiving benefits are more likely to report poor health than employed workers, but the health of unemployed workers in receipt of benefits does not statistically differ from the health of employed workers. The association between receiving benefits and health was most pronounced among low-skilled unemployed workers, who appear to gain substantially from receipt of cash benefits.A key caveat in these studies is that they do not account for selection into benefit receipt, a bias that could lead to either over- or underestimation of effects. For example, if those who lose their jobs are healthier and more likely to be eligible for and receive unemployment benefits, the health benefits of unemployment benefits will be overestimated. During the recent recession, for example, non-Hispanic White race, higher educational level, and being married, characteristics associated with better health, also predicted receipt of benefits among long-term unemployed workers.15 On the other hand, job losers in poor health may anticipate longer-term spells of unemployment and therefore may be more likely to claim unemployment benefits than healthier individuals who expect to quickly find new employment. While 61% of workers in manufacturing and 66% of workers in construction were receiving benefits in the period 2008 to 2011, only 52% of professional and management workers and 49% of workers in the retail trade industry were receiving benefits in the same period.15 These findings suggest that selection is a serious source of potential bias in the relationship between unemployment benefit receipt and health, though the direction of bias is unclear.In the United States, the Federal–State Unemployment Insurance Program provides temporary wage replacement for eligible workers who become unemployed through no fault of their own. Although all states must follow general rules established at the federal level relating to coverage and eligibility, each state operates its own program. As a result, there is considerable variation in the generosity of unemployment benefit programs across states and over time. An approach to account for selection is to exploit these variations in the generosity of unemployment benefit programs to understand their effects on the health of workers. The assumption is that changes in unemployment benefit policy are uncorrelated with a worker’s health or other characteristics, as individuals have no control over the policy at the time they experience job loss. Variations in unemployment benefit generosity across states and over time, therefore, offer a unique natural experiment to estimate the impact of this policy on the health of unemployed workers.In a recent study, Cylus et al. exploited these variations to assess whether unemployment benefits moderate the relationship between aggregate unemployment rates and suicide,16 which are known to increase during recessions.17,18 Findings from this study suggest that more generous unemployment benefits are associated with a weaker effect of recessions on suicide. However, this study was based on aggregate data and did not estimate whether unemployment benefits reduced the negative impact of job loss among unemployed workers or whether benefits might in fact lead to improvements in mental health among both employed and unemployed workers, for example, by reducing the stress associated with the fear of job loss.19 Likewise, it is not clear whether results for suicide are applicable to self-rated health, a measure that combines elements of both physical and mental health, and a strong predictor of mortality.20In this study, we assessed the impact of unemployment benefit programs on the health of the unemployed. We hypothesized that income from unemployment benefits reduces psychological and physical morbidity among displaced workers such that individuals losing their job at a time of more generous unemployment benefit policies will suffer fewer health consequences than comparable individuals losing their jobs during years of lower benefit generosity. By focusing on unemployment benefit program generosity at the state level, we circumvent the bias generated by selection into benefits in the aforementioned studies.21,22 To identify this effect, we exploited variation in state unemployment benefit program generosity across US states and linked these to longitudinal individual-level data.     

In Utero and Childhood Polybrominated Diphenyl Ether Exposures and Body Mass at Age 7 Years: The CHAMACOS Study

Background

Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) are lipophilic flame retardants that bioaccumulate in humans. Child serum PBDE concentrations in California are among the highest worldwide. PBDEs may be associated with obesity by disrupting endocrine systems.

Objective

In this study, we examined whether pre- and postnatal exposure to the components of pentaBDE mixture was associated with childhood obesity in a population of Latino children participating in a longitudinal birth cohort study in the Salinas Valley, California.

Methods

We measured PBDEs in serum collected from 224 mothers during pregnancy and their children at 7 years of age, and examined associations with body mass index (BMI) at age 7 years.

Results

Maternal PBDE serum levels during pregnancy were associated with higher BMI z-scores in boys (BMI z-score β_adjusted = 0.26; 95% CI: –0.19, 0.72) but lower scores in girls (BMI z-score β_adjusted = –0.41; 95% CI: –0.87, –0.05) at 7 years of age (p_interaction = 0.04). In addition, child’s serum BDE-153 concentration (log₁₀), but not other pentaBDE congeners, demonstrated inverse associations with BMI at age 7 years (BMI z-score β_adjusted = –1.15; 95% CI: –1.53, –0.77), but there was no interaction by sex.

Conclusions

We estimated sex-specific associations with maternal PBDE levels during pregnancy and BMI at 7 years of age, finding positive associations in boys and negative associations in girls. Children’s serum BDE-153 concentrations were inversely associated with BMI at 7 years with no difference by sex. Future studies should examine the longitudinal trends in obesity with PBDE exposure and changes in hormonal environment as children transition through puberty, as well as evaluate the potential for reverse causality.

Citation

Erkin-Cakmak A, Harley KG, Chevrier J, Bradman A, Kogut K, Huen K, Eskenazi B. 2015. In utero and childhood polybrominated diphenyl ether exposures and body mass at age 7 years: the CHAMACOS Study. Environ Health Perspect 123:636–642; http://dx.doi.org/10.1289/ehp.1408417     

Changes in Experiences With Discrimination Across Pregnancy and Postpartum: Age Differences and Consequences for Mental Health

Objectives. We aimed to contribute to growing research and theory suggesting the importance of examining patterns of change over time and critical life periods to fully understand the effects of discrimination on health, with a focus on the period of pregnancy and postpartum and mental health outcomes.Methods. We used hierarchical linear modeling to examine changes across pregnancy and postpartum in everyday discrimination and the resulting consequences for mental health among predominantly Black and Latina, socioeconomically disadvantaged young women who were receiving prenatal care in New York City.Results. Patterns of change in experiences with discrimination varied according to age. Among the youngest participants, discrimination increased from the second to third trimesters and then decreased to lower than the baseline level by 1 year postpartum; among the oldest participants, discrimination decreased from the second trimester to 6 months postpartum and then returned to the baseline level by 1 year postpartum. Within-subjects changes in discrimination over time predicted changes in depressive and anxiety symptoms at subsequent points. Discrimination more strongly predicted anxiety symptoms among participants reporting food insecurity.Conclusions. Our results support a life course approach to understanding the impact of experiences with discrimination on health and when to intervene.A large and ever-growing body of research has shown that experiences with discrimination are associated with a wide range of adverse mental and physical health outcomes and may help explain socioeconomic and racial/ethnic health disparities in the United States.1,2 Although the majority of this research has been cross-sectional, an increasing number of longitudinal studies have shown that discrimination predicts poorer health.3,4 Some studies have gone further to examine within-person changes over time in discrimination and the resulting health implications.5–7Recently, Gee et al.8 proposed a life course perspective, calling for more research on changes in experiences with discrimination during critical periods to fully understand discrimination’s health effects and inform interventions. We examined changes across pregnancy and 1 year postpartum in experiences with everyday discrimination and consequences in terms of subsequent changes in depressive and anxiety symptoms among predominantly Black and Latina, socioeconomically disadvantaged young women residing in New York City. In their recent theoretical article, Gee et al. asserted:

Exposure to racism can change in nature, importance, and intensity. Similarly, health and the factors that produce health can change. A growing body of research shows that health is not merely the result of risks that occur sporadically at one point in time. Failure to attend to these temporal changes not only shortchanges our knowledge base, but also can lead to missed opportunities for intervention.8^(p967)

Cross-sectional (or even longitudinal) studies examining between-subjects associations of discrimination with health outcomes cannot assess changes in discrimination over time. To advance understanding of the health effects of discrimination, taking a life course perspective and examining changes in discrimination over time are crucial. Gee et al.8 highlighted potential age-patterned exposures to discrimination, with certain critical periods during which changes are more drastic. Some research supports this perspective, with evidence that racial discrimination increases across adolescence5 among African American youths and increases over time6 among African American, Latino, and Asian American youths. Although Gee et al. focused on racism, we suggest that their framework applies to all forms of discrimination.Pregnancy and postpartum may be a critical period to study changes in discrimination, given that women’s experiences with discrimination during pregnancy increase their likelihood of adverse maternal and infant health outcomes such as having a low birth weight infant9,10 and contracting a sexually transmitted infection.11 Also, women experience changes in their bodies, social relationships, and emotions12 during pregnancy and postpartum and come into contact with a variety of new social institutions, including those related to obstetrics and child care; thus, as a result of these life changes, women may experience changes in exposure to discrimination during this time period.8Changes in experiences with discrimination may also vary according to factors such as age, race/ethnicity, nativity, and socioeconomic status. Socioeconomically disadvantaged women, women of color, and women born outside of the United States who may have experienced discrimination regularly throughout their lives might feel that they are treated better or face less discrimination during pregnancy and the postpartum period, when people may extend them courtesies (e.g., giving up a seat on a bus) and institutions may offer added support (e.g., ensuring prenatal and infant care).By contrast, some theories suggest that Black and Latina women in the United States may experience heightened discrimination during pregnancy and postpartum because of group stereotypes related to sexuality and motherhood (e.g., sexual promiscuity, single parenthood) and the societal devaluation of motherhood in women of color.13,14 Some of these negative stereotypes specifically target Black and Latina adolescents and young women14 and so may be particularly relevant for younger age groups. Thus, experiences with discrimination can increase or decrease during pregnancy and postpartum, and the pattern of change may vary on the basis of characteristics such as age, race/ethnicity, nativity, and socioeconomic status. It is therefore important to assess these characteristics as potential moderators of changes in discrimination during this period.Discrimination is an important determinant of mental health across different social groups.1,2 The majority of research on discrimination and mental health is cross sectional; as noted, however, an increasing amount of research has explored this association longitudinally. For example, individual differences in Black Americans’ experiences with racial discrimination have been found to predict depressive and anxiety symptoms at a later time point, but differences in depressive and anxiety symptoms have not been found to predict racial discrimination at a later point.4,15Studies have begun to explore whether experiences with discrimination change over time and whether these changes are associated with changes in mental health. Schulz et al.7 found that changes over 2 time points (spaced 5 years apart) in Black American women’s experiences with discrimination were positively associated with simultaneous changes in depressive symptoms and negatively associated with changes in self-rated health.Greene et al.6 found that changes in experiences with discrimination across 5 time points (over 3 years) were negatively associated with simultaneous changes in self-esteem and positively associated with changes in depressive symptoms among Black, Latino, and Asian American high school students. Similarly, Brody et al.5 found that changes in experiences with racial discrimination across 3 time points (over 5 years) were positively associated with simultaneous changes in conduct problems and depressive symptoms among Black adolescents. To the best of our knowledge, despite this existing research on discrimination and depressive symptoms, no work has examined associations between changes in discrimination and changes in anxiety or assessed these associations during pregnancy.Yet, pregnancy and postpartum may be a particularly important period during which to examine associations of discrimination with depressive and anxiety symptoms. During pregnancy, these symptoms have adverse consequences for birth outcomes (e.g., preterm birth and low birth weight) and infant development (e.g., cognitive and motor development).16 In the postpartum period, these symptoms have adverse consequences with respect to parenting behaviors (e.g., playing with and talking to the infant) and the health of both the mother and the child.17 In addition, although past research suggests that discrimination has adverse mental health consequences across diverse groups, much of this research has focused on specific groups (e.g., Black Americans), and thus it is important to examine whether these associations vary according to factors such as age, race/ethnicity, nativity, and socioeconomic status.The first aim of our study was to examine changes in experiences with discrimination across pregnancy and 1 year postpartum and assess whether age, race/ethnicity, nativity, or socioeconomic status moderated the pattern of change. Our second aim was to explore whether changes in experiences with discrimination over time predicted changes in depressive and anxiety symptoms at subsequent points and whether the sociodemographic factors just described moderated these associations.Given the competing theories described earlier, we did not have a specific expected pattern of change; rather, we hypothesized that experiences with discrimination would change across pregnancy and the postpartum period and that age, race/ethnicity, nativity, or socioeconomic status of participant might moderate that pattern. Also, consistent with past work showing associations between discrimination and mental health across diverse groups, we hypothesized that changes in experiences with discrimination across pregnancy and postpartum would significantly positively predict changes in depressive and anxiety symptoms at subsequent time points and that participants’ age, race/ethnicity, nativity, and socioeconomic status would not moderate those associations.     

The Interaction Between an Individual’s Acculturation and Community Factors on Physical Inactivity and Obesity: A Multilevel Analysis

Objectives. We examined whether the interactions between primarily speaking English at home and community-level measures (median household income and immigrant composition) are associated with physical inactivity and obesity.Methods. We pooled the 2005 and 2007 Los Angeles County Health Survey data to construct a multilevel data set, with community-level median household income and immigrant density as predictors at the community level. After controlling for individual-level demographic variables, we included the respondent’s perceived community safety as a covariate to test the hypothesis that perceived public safety mediates the association between acculturation and health outcomes.Results. The interaction between community median household income and primarily speaking English at home was associated with lower likelihoods of physical inactivity (odds ratio [OR] = 0.644; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.502, 0.825) and obesity (OR = 0.674; 95% CI = 0.514, 0.882). These odds remained significant after we controlled for perceived community safety.Conclusions. Resources in higher-income areas may be beneficial only to residents fully integrated into the community. Future research could focus on understanding how linguistic isolation affects community-level social learning and access to resources and whether this differs by family-level acculturation.Immigrants face the challenge of assimilating into their host country while maintaining values, beliefs, and behaviors from their homelands. Both acculturation and ethnic identity can influence health, and the construct of acculturation has been included in more and more health studies.1,2 Despite long-standing sociocultural theories of behavior that suggest that one’s behavior is the result of a dynamic interplay between internal, individual-level factors and social-cultural context,3–6 few public health studies have explored this interaction.7 A critical review noted that studies of acculturation tend to

separate culture from the larger social structure and the dynamic social processes in which behavior and beliefs are generated, and to relegate consideration of the socio-economic challenges associated with immigration, poor English language skills, and poverty, to their effects as separate or confounding variables.8^(p981)

For an immigrant, the interaction between acculturation status and the larger social structure in the host society could be important for health, as an inadequate level of acculturation in some contexts might result in reduced access to resources. In particular, undocumented immigrants have no federal coverage of health care under the Affordable Care Act. Therefore, access to resources may differ by legal status. However, in some settings, ethnic identity may buffer and even be protective against public health challenges in the United States (e.g., immigrants may maintain their dietary customs, which often include more whole foods, despite the excessive availability of processed foods in the United States).9 From a methodological perspective, multilevel models can provide a better understanding of this kind of interaction, whereby community-level factors, individual-level acculturation, and the cross-level interaction effects between the two can all be included as regressors of the outcome variable. However, very few public health studies have considered the cross-level interaction between acculturation and community-level factors on health behaviors and health outcomes. In an attempt to fill this research gap, we used population-based survey data to explore the cross-level interaction between community-level factors (median household income and immigrant composition) and individual-level linguistic acculturation (language preference at home).This study includes 2 independent variables that have been infrequently considered in previous studies of immigrant health: community immigrant composition and perceived community safety. Among various community-level factors that could influence residents’ health outcomes, community immigrant composition has begun to receive academic attention.10 Aside from individual-level acculturation indicators such as language preference and place of birth, living in a community with a high proportion of immigrants may be an independent predictor of one’s level of acculturation since people who are less acculturated may choose to live in ethnic enclaves.11 Perceived community safety has been shown to be a strong predictor of individual-level health outcomes such as having a mental health disorder or being overweight.12–15 The causal pathways between an unsafe community and negative health outcomes such as obesity could operate through reduced physical activity16–20 or through stress, which can disrupt energy metabolism and food intake regulation.21–24Because acculturation has been shown to be associated with one’s perception of community safety25 and predicts many different health behaviors and health outcomes,1,2 it is likely that an individual’s level of acculturation could modify the impact of community-level factors on health outcomes. Because understanding of these causal mechanisms is still far from conclusive, a study of the interaction between individuals’ level of acculturation and community-level factors could help reveal the complex pattern of acculturation and health. From the perspective of public health interventions, a good understanding of acculturation, perceived safety, and health could inform intersectoral collaboration between public safety, K-12 (kindergarten through 12th grade) and adult education, immigrant services, and public health agencies.     

Biology‐Driven Gene‐Gene Interaction Analysis of Age‐Related Cataract in the eMERGE Network

Bioinformatics approaches to examine gene‐gene models provide a means to discover interactions between multiple genes that underlie complex disease. Extensive computational demands and adjusting for multiple testing make uncovering genetic interactions a challenge. Here, we address these issues using our knowledge‐driven filtering method, Biofilter, to identify putative single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) interaction models for cataract susceptibility, thereby reducing the number of models for analysis. Models were evaluated in 3,377 European Americans (1,185 controls, 2,192 cases) from the Marshfield Clinic, a study site of the Electronic Medical Records and Genomics (eMERGE) Network, using logistic regression. All statistically significant models from the Marshfield Clinic were then evaluated in an independent dataset of 4,311 individuals (742 controls, 3,569 cases), using independent samples from additional study sites in the eMERGE Network: Mayo Clinic, Group Health/University of Washington, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, and Geisinger Health System. Eighty‐three SNP‐SNP models replicated in the independent dataset at likelihood ratio test P < 0.05. Among the most significant replicating models was rs12597188 (intron of CDH1)–rs11564445 (intron of CTNNB1). These genes are known to be involved in processes that include: cell‐to‐cell adhesion signaling, cell‐cell junction organization, and cell‐cell communication. Further Biofilter analysis of all replicating models revealed a number of common functions among the genes harboring the 83 replicating SNP‐SNP models, which included signal transduction and PI3K‐Akt signaling pathway. These findings demonstrate the utility of Biofilter as a biology‐driven method, applicable for any genome‐wide association study dataset.     

Absence of late gadolinium enhancement on cardiac magnetic resonance imaging in ventricular fibrillation and nonischemic cardiomyopathy

Introduction

Cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR)‐identified late gadolinium enhancement (LGE), representing regional fibrosis, is often used to predict ventricular arrhythmia risk in nonischemic cardiomyopathy (NICM). However, LGE is more closely correlated with sustained monomorphic ventricular tachycardia (SMVT) than ventricular fibrillation (VF). We characterized CMR findings of ventricular LGE in VF survivors.

Methods

We examined consecutively resuscitated VF survivors undergoing contrast‐enhanced 1.5T CMR between 9/2007 and 7/2016. We excluded coronary artery disease, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, amyloid, sarcoid, arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy, and channelopathy. Preexisting implantable cardioverter‐defibrillator (ICD) was a CMR contraindication. VF patients were divided into three groups: (1) NICM, (2) left ventricular (LV) dilatation with normal LV ejection fraction (LVEF), and (3) normal LV size and LVEF. Two groups of NICM patients with and without SMVT were examined for comparison.

Results

We analyzed 87 VF patients, and found that LGE was seen in 8/22 (36%) with NICM (LVEF 38 ± 11%, LV end‐diastolic volume index [LVEDVI] 134 ± 68 mL/BSA), 11/40 (28%) with LV dilatation and normal LVEF (LVEDVI 103 ± 17 mL/BSA), 4/25 (16%) with normal LV size and LVEF. Incidence of LGE in NICM patients without prior ventricular tachycardia/VF (LVEF 36 ± 12%, LVEDVI 141 ± 46 mL/body surface area [BSA]) was 117/277 and was not lower than those with VF and NICM (42% vs 36%; P = 0.59). By contrast, 22/37 NICM patients with SMVT (LVEF 42 ± 11%, LVEDVI 123 ± 48 mL/BSA) were LGE‐positive (59% NICM‐SMVT vs 36% NICM‐VF; P = 0.04).

Conclusion

Most VF survivors with a diagnosis of NICM did not have LGE on CMR and would not have met primary prevention ICD criteria based on LVEF. Absence of LGE may not portend a benign prognosis in NICM. Novel strategies for determining SCD risk in this cohort are required.