How does informal employment impact population health? Lessons from the Chilean employment conditions survey. (December 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Ruiz, Marisol E.; Vives, Alejandra; Martínez-Solanas, Èrica; Julià, Mireia; Benach, Joan
• Is Part Of: Safety science. Volume 100:Part A(2017)
• Page Start: 57
• Page End: 65
• Publication Date: 2017-12
• Subjects: Informal employment -- Employment conditions -- Determinants on health -- Health inequalities -- Chilean labour market; Industrial accidents -- Periodicals; Accident Prevention -- Periodicals; Safety -- Periodicals; Travail -- Accidents -- Périodiques; 363.11
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ssci.2017.02.009
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0925-7535

Abstract

Highlights: This is the first study of informal employment and health in Chile. Informal employment is related with poor self-rated health and mental health. Gender is an important axis of inequality when studying informal employment. Men seem to be more negatively affected than women. As a serious problem to public health, monitoring informal employment is a key issue. Abstract: Informal employment is an employment condition and a social determinant of health. Although it can represent a serious problem for public health, it is seldom studied as such. The aim of this study was to determine if there is a relationship between informal employment and health among different groups of workers in Chile. We used a cross-sectional study with data for 8357 workers from the first Chilean work, employment, health and quality of life survey (2009–2010). Workers were classified as formal or informal according to the contractual situation and workplace for dependent workers, educational level for the self-employed, and number of employees for employers. We then grouped these into Dependent formal, Non-dependent formal, Dependent informal and Non-dependent informal. Sex-stratified descriptive analyses and Poisson regression models with prevalence ratios (PR) adjusted for age were used to quantify the association between these four groups of employment and self-rated health and mental health (GHQ12). There was a positive and statistically significant association between informal employment and poor self-rated and mental health for men but not for women. Models for the interaction between informal employment and sex illustrated that it was statistically significant for both health outcomes. This study found a consistent relationship between informal employment and poor self-rated health and mental health. Further research is needed to better understand this association and the gender differences observed in this study.