Precarious work increases depression-based disability among male employees.
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ABSTRACT: Background
Precarious employment is a potent occupational health risk, but little is known about its association with work-related disability and its causes. This study analyzes whether employment precariousness is associated with receiving disability pension (DP) due to depression and whether this differs according to gender.Methods
Statistics Finland's Quality of Work Life Surveys (1997, 2003, 2008 and 2013) were merged with register-based DP data obtained from the Finnish Centre for Pensions. The survey material was used to measure employment precariousness using five variables: fear of job loss, poor employability prospects, previous unemployment, low earnings and temporary contracts. We followed 20-60-year-old employees until 2016 and studied Cox proportional hazard ratios (HRs) for receiving DP among women and men, adjusting for sociodemographic covariates, working conditions and health at baseline.Results
The overall risk of receiving DP tended to increase as precarious job features accumulated. Among men, a higher risk of receiving DP due to depression was associated with previous unemployment [HR 2.2, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.1-4.2] and poor employability (HR 2.4, 95% CI 1.3-4.7), whereas no corresponding association was found among women.Conclusions
Employment precariousness may reflect a psychological stress mechanism that predisposes the individual to mental health problems, predicting future disability. Work disability risk shows gendered differences depending on the cause of DP. Promoting employability at workplace and policy levels could offset the health risks associated with precariousness.
SUBMITTER: Pyoria P
PROVIDER: S-EPMC8643409 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:BackgroundWe aimed to investigate time period effects in the risk of work disability, defined as long-term sickness absence (LTSA) and disability pension (DP) due to common mental disorders (CMDs), among young employees according to employment sector (private/public) and occupational class (non-manual/manual).MethodsThree cohorts, including all employed individuals with complete information on employment sector and occupational class, aged 19-29 years and resident in Sweden on 31 December 2004, 2009 and 2014 (n = 573 516, 665 138 and 600 889, respectively) were followed for 4 years. Multivariate-adjusted hazard ratios (aHRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were estimated to examine the risk of LTSA and DP due to CMDs using Cox regression analyses.ResultsIn all cohorts, public sector employees had higher aHRs for LTSA due to CMDs than private sector employees, irrespective of occupational class, e.g. aHR, 95% CI: 1.24, 1.16-1.33 and 1.15, 1.08-1.23 among non-manual and manual workers in cohort 2004. The rates of DP due to CMDs were much lower in cohorts 2009 and 2014 than 2004 leading to uncertain risk estimates in the later cohorts. Still, public sector manual workers had a higher risk for DP due to CMDs than manual workers in the private sector in cohort 2014 than in 2004 (aHR, 95% CI: 1.54, 1.34-1.76 and 3.64, 2.14-6.18, respectively).ConclusionsManual workers in the public sector seem to have a higher risk of work disability due to CMDs than their counterparts in the private sector calling for the need for early intervention strategies to prevent long-term work disability.
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