Do Different Patterns of Employment Quality Contribute to Gender Health Inequities in the U.S.? A Cross-Sectional Mediation Analysis

Details

• Personal Author:
  de Castro AB ; Hajat A ; Peckham T ; Seixas, Noah S.
• Description:
  Compared to recent generations, workers today generally experience poorer quality employment across both contractual (e.g., wages, hours) and relational (e.g., participation in decision-making, power dynamics) dimensions within the worker-employer relationship. Recent research shows that women are more likely to experience poor-quality employment and that these conditions are associated with adverse health effects, suggesting employment relations may contribute to gender inequities in health. We analyzed data from the General Social Survey (2002-2018) to explore whether the multidimensional construct of employment quality (EQ) mediates the relationship between gender and health among a representative, cross-sectional sample of U.S. wage earners. Using a counterfactually-based causal mediation framework, we found that EQ plays a meaningful role in a gender-health relationship, and that if the distribution of EQ among women was equal to that observed in men, the probability of reporting poor self-reported health and frequent mental distress among women would be lower by 1.5% (95% Confidence Interval: 0.5-2.8%) and 2.6% (95% CI: 0.6-4.6%), respectively. Our use of a multidimensional, typological measure of EQ allowed our analysis to better account for substantial heterogeneity in the configuration of contemporary employment arrangements. Additionally, this study is one of the first mediation analyses with a nominal mediator within the epidemiologic literature. Our results highlight EQ as a potential target for intervention to reduce gender inequities in health. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Epidemiology Occupational Health Safety Sex Characteristics Women
• Keywords:
  Author Keywords: Gender Inequities In Health Cross Sectional Studies Employees Employee Satisfaction Employment Quality Gender Factors Latent Class Analysis Mediation Analyses Precarious Employment Work Organization
• ISSN:
  1660-4601
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  OSHA Region 10 ; Washington
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Volume:
  19
• Issue:
  18
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20066928
• Citation:
  Int J Environ Res Public Health 2022 Sep; 19(8):11237
• Contact Point Address:
  Trevor Peckham, Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA
• Email:
  tpeckham@uw.edu
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2022
• Performing Organization:
  University of Washington
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Start Date:
  20050701
• Source Full Name:
  International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
• End Date:
  20250630
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:7bac8121d9ca02e29ef847e4e1599904c61f298ecb9b4724c81a9c6cb6215d9c7797d4aa3d891a1ed142b5b6800a0771d9b729a783e3ddc2bbf276bb57468582
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/231211/cdc_231211_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 642.69 KB ]