Abstract:
Aims: To assess the impact of involuntary job loss due to plant closure or layoff on relapse to
smoking and smoking intensity among older workers.
Design, Participants, Sample: Data come from the Health and Retirement Study, a nationally
representative survey of older Americans aged 51-61 in 1991 followed every 2 years beginning
in 1992. The 3,052 participants who were working at the initial wave and had any history of
smoking comprise the main sample.
Methods (Measures): Primary outcomes are smoking relapse at Wave 2 (1994) among baseline
former smokers, and smoking quantity at Wave 2 among baseline current smokers. As reported
at the Wave 2 follow-up, 6.8 percent of the sample experienced an involuntary job loss between
Waves 1 and 2.
Findings: Older workers have over two times greater odds of relapse subsequent to involuntary
job loss than those who did not. Further, those who were current smokers prior to displacement
that did not obtain new employment were found to be smoking more cigarettes, on average, post
job loss.
Conclusions: The stress of job loss, along with other significant changes associated with
leaving one’s job, which would tend to increase cigarette consumption, must outweigh the
financial hardship, which would tend to reduce consumption. This highlights job loss as an
important health risk factor for older smokers.
