Faculty of Medicine, School of Population and Public Health, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
Faculty of Science, Department of Life Sciences, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
PLoS One. 2022 Aug 18;17(8):e0273218. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0273218. eCollection 2022.
Becoming unemployed is associated with poorer health, including weight gain. Middle- and older-age adults are a growing segment of workforces globally, but they are also more vulnerable to changes to employment status, especially during economic shocks. Expected workforce exits over the next decade may exacerbate both the obesity epidemic and the economic burden of obesity. This review extends current knowledge on economic correlates of health to assess whether employment transitions impact body weight by sex/gender among middle-aged and older adults.
Eight bibliometric databases were searched between June and July 2021, supplemented by hand-searches, with no restriction on publication date or country. Longitudinal studies, or reviews, were eligible when examining body weight as a function of employment status change in adults ≥50 years. Data extraction and quality appraisal used predefined criteria; reported findings were analysed by narrative synthesis.
We screened 6,001 unique abstracts and identified 12 articles that met inclusion criteria. All studies examined retirement; of which two also examined job-loss. Overall, studies showed that retirement led to weight gain or no difference in weight change compared to non-retirees; however, reported effects were not consistent for either women or men across studies or for both women and men within a study. Reported effects also differed by occupation: weight gain was more commonly observed among retirees from physical occupations but not among retirees from sedentary occupations. Few studies assessed the role of health behaviours; sleep was the least studied. Most studies were medium quality.
Existing studies do not provide a clear enough picture of how employment transitions affect body weight. Firm conclusions on the impact of employment transitions on weight cannot be made without further high-quality evidence that considers the role of gender, job-type, other health behaviours, and other transitions, like job-loss.
失业与健康状况恶化有关，包括体重增加。中老年人是全球劳动力中不断增长的一部分，但他们也更容易受到就业状况变化的影响，尤其是在经济冲击期间。预计未来十年的预期劳动力退出可能会加剧肥胖流行和肥胖的经济负担。本综述将健康的经济相关性的现有知识扩展到评估就业转型是否会通过性别/性别影响中年和老年人的体重。
2021 年 6 月至 7 月期间，我们在 8 个文献计量数据库中进行了搜索，并通过手工搜索进行了补充，对出版物日期或国家没有限制。当检查≥50 岁成年人的体重作为就业状况变化的函数时，只有当研究是关于成年人的时，纵向研究或综述才符合条件。使用预设标准进行数据提取和质量评估；根据叙述性综合分析报告的研究结果。
我们筛选了 6001 篇独特的摘要，确定了 12 篇符合纳入标准的文章。所有研究都检查了退休；其中两项还研究了失业。总体而言，研究表明退休导致体重增加或与非退休人员相比体重变化没有差异；然而，在研究之间或在一项研究中的女性和男性之间，报告的影响并不一致。报告的影响也因职业而异：体力职业的退休人员体重增加更为常见，而久坐职业的退休人员则没有。很少有研究评估健康行为的作用；睡眠是研究最少的。大多数研究的质量中等。
现有研究没有清楚地说明就业转型如何影响体重。如果没有进一步的高质量证据考虑性别、工作类型、其他健康行为和其他转型（如失业）的作用，就无法对就业转型对体重的影响得出明确的结论。
