How can we break the vicious circle between poor health and exit from paid employment?

People who involuntarily leave the labor market due to health problems run the risk of entering into a vicious circle as exiting the labor market can aggravate their initial health problems, especially if accompanied by other forms of social exclusion. While this problem affects large parts of the population, especially during economic downturns, it may particularly affect those with a weak initial labor market position, such as those with low socioeconomic status (SES). This unequal burden has been documented in an interesting paper in this issue of the Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment& Health (1). The authors report findings from five European regions showing that lower-educated persons had increased risks of exit from paid employment due to health problems compared to those with higher education levels. To document these inequalities, the authors applied a method, the population attributable fraction (PAF), which has a long tradition in public health research but remains underutilized in studies focusing on occupational health. The PAF combines information on the prevalence of the exposure of int erest (in this case: poor health), with estimates on the relative risk of those exposed for the outcome of interest (in this case: exit from paid employment). Using the PAF, the authors estimated that the annual rate of labor market exit due to health problems was, for example, about 4% for intermed iate-educated workers in the Continental region. This risk varied consi...
Source: Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment and Health - Category: Occupational Health Tags: Editorial Source Type: research