Is Your Job the Cause of Your Diabetes?

Did you know that people who are worried about losing their jobs may be more likely to become diabetic? Well, according to a new analysis that compared people who were relatively secure in their employment position, those with job insecurity had a higher rate of diabetes.

Compared to people who felt secure in their jobs, people who were experiencing so-called job insecurity had a 19 percent higher rate of new cases of diabetes, which researchers called a “modest increased risk.”

“If you lose your job or have job insecurity, make sure you’re exercising.”

Lead author of the study, Jane Ferrie noted that the  study can’t prove that job insecurity causes diabetes but then added: “In an ideal world, the sort of thing I’d like to see come out of this study is a reduction in job insecurity and an increase in secure job contracts and reasonable wages.”

Ferrie and her colleagues at the University of Bristol and the University College London compiled data from 19 studies involving a total of 140,825 adults in the U.S., Australia and Europe who were employed and diabetes free when they enrolled in the case studies.

At the beginning of the study, participants were asked if they experience anxiety about losing their jobs. From six to 40 percent of respondents said yes.  Over the next 10 years, the annual rate of new diabetes cases in the study ranged from 9 to 85 participants for every 10,000 participants.

When Ferrie and her researchers restricted their analysis to the 15 studies with data on factors other than age and sex that might influence a person’s risk, job insecurity was still linked to a 12 percent higher risk of being diagnosed with diabetes.

Past studies have already noted how job insecurity is linked with higher body mass index (BMI)  and an increased risk of heart attacks and deaths related to heart problems.

Ferrie noted that job-related stress can cause people to overeat and overindulge in other unhealthy behaviors while stress hormones, caused by job insecurity can directly promote weight gain  which could also contribute to increased risk for diabetes.

Edwin Torres, of Montefiore Health System in New York City,  noted how important it is to maintain a healthy lifestyle even your feeling stressed about your employment situation. “If you lose your job or have job insecurity, make sure you’re exercising.”