Dr. Jim and Sarah Laditka present at the Medical University of South Carolina

Dr. Jim Laditka and Dr. Sarah Laditka presented a research seminar to faculty and graduate students in the Department of Public Health Sciences at the Medical University of South Carolina on September 22, “Treats All ’Round: Using Multinomial Markov Modeling and Microsimulation to Address Missing Data in Longitudinal Analysis in a Study of Unemployment and Active Life Expectancy.”

Their study uses using data from more than 40 years of the United States Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID). The PSID was started in 1968 and continues today. It is the longest running household panel survey in the world. The analysis examined effects of unemployment on disability and active life expectancy using data from 43 years of the PSID. Compared with individuals with little or no unemployment, those with high unemployment had substantially lower life expectancy and a much greater proportion of remaining life with disability. The substantial increase in long-term unemployment that began in 2008 with the Great Recession, together with effects of changing technologies and globalization, may reduce life expectancy and increase disability in the United States. That result is likely to have important consequences for employers, Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.