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International Journal of Social Psychiatry
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The Impact of Unemployment On Psychosomatic Symptoms and Mental Well-Being

Heimo Vnamäki

Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, Kuopio University Hospital, PO Box 1777, SF-70211 Kuopio, Finland

Kaj Koskela

Public Health, Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, PO Box 197, SF-00531 Helsinki, Finland

Leo Niskanen

Department of Medicine, Kuopio University Hospital, PO Box 1777, SF-70211 Kuopio, Finland

The relationship between psychosomatic symptoms and mental well-being among unemployed (N = 132) and employed (N = 187) personnel of two similar wood-processing factories was studied. Mental well-being was measured by means of the 12-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-score) and the 13-item Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-score). The 13-item questionnaire assessing psychosomatic symptoms was used (PS-score). The 33 and 66 percentiles (tertiles) were formed on the basis of PS-score of the two groups separately. The highest PS-score percentile was compared with the combined first and second percentile. Higher PS-score implied impaired mental well-being especially in the unemployed but also in the control group. Insufficient social support and uncertainty about the future was associated with highest PS-score in the study group but not in the control group. High PS-score was associated with subjective mental problems in both groups. Impaired health and PS-score were associated in both groups.

Our results suggest that unemployment is a powerful external stress factor and that psychosomatic symptoms were associated with impaired mental well-being.

International Journal of Social Psychiatry, Vol. 39, No. 4, 266-273 (1993)
DOI: 10.1177/002076409303900403
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