Unemployment as a risk factor for gambling disorder: a longitudinal study based on national registry data

Syvertsen, A, Leino, T, Smith, ORF, Mentzoni, RA, Sivertsen, B, Griffiths, MD ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8880-6524 and Pallesen, S, 2024. Unemployment as a risk factor for gambling disorder: a longitudinal study based on national registry data. Journal of Behavioral Addictions, 13 (3), pp. 751-760. ISSN 2062-5871

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Abstract

Background and aims: Unemployment rates are elevated among individuals with disordered gambling, yet the directionality of the relationship remains unclear. The present study investigated paid and unpaid unemployment as risk factors for future gambling disorder (GD).

Methods: The study employed a case-control design, including all adult Norwegians receiving a GD diagnosis within specialist health services from January 2008 to December 2018 (n = 5,131). These individuals were compared with age- and sex-matched controls from the general population (n = 30,164), as well as controls with somatic and psychiatric diagnoses (n = 30,476).

Results: Logistic regressions showed that those in the highest quartile of unpaid unemployment days had more than double the odds (odds ratio [OR] 2.23 (95% CI [1.96, 2.52]) of developing GD compared to those with no unpaid unemployment days. Similarly, higher levels of paid unemployment were also found to increase the odds for GD, with those in the highest quartile having an OR of 1.86 (95% CI [1.50, 2.28]) compared to those with no paid unemployment days. Moreover, an interaction analysis indicated that the association between paid unemployment days and GD was significantly stronger among men compared to women.

Conclusions: The present study suggests that both paid and unpaid unemployment constitute risk factors for GD. Programs aiming at obtaining and sustaining work have been found to improve health and future studies should examine if the risk for GD can be similarly mitigated.

Item Type:	Journal article
Publication Title:	Journal of Behavioral Addictions
Creators:	Syvertsen, A., Leino, T., Smith, O.R.F., Mentzoni, R.A., Sivertsen, B., Griffiths, M.D. and Pallesen, S.
Publisher:	Akadémiai Kiadó
Date:	4 October 2024
Volume:	13
Number:	3
ISSN:	2062-5871
Identifiers:	Number Type 10.1556/2006.2024.00049 DOI 2224097 Other
Rights:	© 2024 The Author(s). This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium for non-commercial purposes, provided the original author and source are credited, a link to the CC License is provided, and changes – if any – are indicated.
Divisions:	Schools > School of Social Sciences
Record created by:	Melissa Cornwell
Date Added:	24 Sep 2024 09:24
Last Modified:	15 Oct 2024 08:18
Related URLs:	Publisher
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/52293

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