Job-loss and morbidity in married men with and without young children.

The data resulting from a longitudinal study of the consequences of threatened and eventual job-loss on health in industrial employees was examined in order to analyse the influence of family size. When the risk factor of age was eliminated, no difference was found in the use made of health services by married men with at least two dependent children aged under 16 years and those with no dependent children. However, the wives of men with no dependent children consulted at a significantly higher rate than the wives of men with dependent children in the period when their husbands faced and then underwent job-loss.