Unemployment accelerates ageing

The longer the periods of unemployment, the greater the impact on health. ©Phovoir

According to a study conducted by teams of British and Finnish researchers, long-term unemployment may accelerate ageing. The scientists reached this conclusion on the basis of telomere length – a journey to the very heart of DNA.

Teams at Imperial College in London and Oulu in Finland, studied DNA samples from 5,620 Finnish people born in 1966. More specifically, they measured the telomere length. Situated at the ends of chromosomes, telomeres become shorter as the years go by and therefore constitute an excellent marker for ageing, but also for conditions such as type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

The scientists were able to analyse the length of these structures using blood samples taken in 1997. They observed a premature shortening of the telomeres among men who had been unemployed for more than two years when compared with those who had always remained in employment. 

Surprisingly, the same result was not found in the women studied. Dr Buxton of Imperial College in London explains that “short telomeres are associated with a large number of age-related diseases and with premature mortality. It has already been shown that traumatic and stressful events during childhood and adolescence may accelerate this process. However, as far as long-term unemployment is concerned, this is the first time that we have studied it from this angle.” Indeed, a lot of research has been done into the links between health and unemployment but, up to now, none had been done into premature ageing.

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  Source : Imperial College, London, 20 November 2013