Worried Sick

The link above takes you to the abstract quoted below.  Highlights in bold are my emphasis and not the author’s.

In today’s global economy, employees are much less likely to stay at one organization for the length of their careers. One significant side effect of this trend is that many employees feel less secure in their jobs. According to this study, being afraid of losing your job may be bad for your health. The authors analyzed questionnaires distributed to more than 1,700 people in the U.S. during two separate periods spanning two decades, which allowed them to control for poor health, job insecurity, and actual employment losses over time. As many as 18 percent of the employees surveyed said they felt insecure about their jobs. In one of the study groups, the authors found that chronic job insecurity was a more reliable predictor of poor health than smoking or hypertension. And job insecurity was more closely associated with failing health than actual unemployment, the researchers found, because of the ongoing stress caused by an uncertain future, an inability to take action, and a lack of institutionalized support. One implication for businesses is that employees who worry about losing their jobs have trouble concentrating, experience more stress, and take more sick days. The researchers argue that programs aimed at displaced or unemployed workers won’t reach people who have jobs but are insecure, and they suggest that organizations and government policies aim to lessen the degree of stress linked to job insecurity.

Bottom Line:
Even more than actual unemployment, persistent job insecurity is closely linked to declining health and increased stress in American workers.

For a Healthy Retirement, Keep Working – Well Blog – NYTimes.com

N-Terminal Pro-B-Type Natriuretic Peptide Is a Major Predictor of the Development of Atrial Fibrillation. The Cardiovascular Health Study

NT-proBNP level is a strong independent predictor of AF.

Alcohol as a Risk Factor for Type 2 Diabetes — Diabetes Care

Our analysis confirms previous research findings that moderate alcohol consumption is protective for type 2 diabetes in men and women.

 

Mexican farm leader killed with 14 others on ranch | Reuters

More than 15,000 people have been killed in drug-related violence in Mexico since President Felipe Calderon launched an army-led assault on cartels soon after taking office in 2006.

 

1.02 is the number of books I’ve read per week so far in 2009.

One more quarter to go.

I found this fascinating quote today:

Though members of Generation Y spend considerable time on social networks such as Facebook and MySpace, they are far more willing to give up these social networks for a week than texting or email, according to (pdf) a study by the Participatory Marketing Network (PMN), conducted in partnership with Pace University’s Lubin School of Business’ IDM Lab.strategystew.com, Strategy Stew

You should read the whole article.

A very good interview with Dr. Stefan Gluck, medical oncologist at the Braman Family Breast Cancer Institute at the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.

Breast cancer: The latest in research – Living – MiamiHerald.com

We look at the size of the cancer, the number of lymph nodes involved and the surgery. Those issues drive whether a woman will need radiation. Then the pathologist measures estrogen receptor, progesterone receptor and human epidermal growth receptor, the HER-2. The first two are good prognostic markers, whereas the HER-2 is a bad prognostic marker. If both good ones are positive, then it tends to be a less aggressive cancer and patients tend to do better over the years with fewer recurrences. The patient who has ER, PR negative breast cancer has many more recurrences, particularly in the first three to five years. The HER-2 doubles the recurrence rate if it is positive. The good news is we can counterbalance it with treatment. If a patient has an HER-2 positive breast cancer, we treat her with Herceptin. Herceptin is an immunotherapy because it’s an antibody and you infuse it every three weeks for one year. It decreases the recurrences by half. Then you have the cancer that is negative for ER, PR and HER-2. We call it triple negative breast cancer. The only thing we can use is chemotherapy.

 

QuickStats: Percentage of Adults Aged ≥65 Years Limited* in Activities of Daily Living (ADLs), by Poverty Ratio† and Number of Limitations — National Health Interview Survey, United States, 2003–2007§

ING to Raise $11.3 Billion, Sell Insurance Units (Update2) – Bloomberg.com