McGill Sociology Professor Eran Shor has recently discovered while working in collaboration with researchers from Stony Brook University that unemployment is one of the big causes of premature deaths. 63% increase has been cited by the researchers in the risk of premature mortality due to unemployment.

Professor Shor has concluded these results by surveying over 20 million people in 15 (mainly western) countries, over the last 40 years. He studied during his survey that the health-care system succeeded very little in lowering the mortality rates whereas on the other hand the unemployment condition and the risk of deaths showed a big correlation in all the countries covered by the study.

Regarding the situation, Professor Shor marked that “Until now, one of the big questions in the literature has been about whether pre-existing health conditions, such as diabetes or heart problems, or behaviors such as smoking, drinking or drug use, lead to both unemployment and a greater risk of death”. He further said that the relation between the unemployment situation and the mortality rate is really a casual one as no effect was found on preexisting health conditions by the researchers during their study. They also pointed out that unemployment just causes stress and negative effect on one’s socioeconomic status, which in turn can lead to poorer health and higher mortality rates.