IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0178486.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Employment history indicators and mortality in a nested case-control study from the Spanish WORKing life social security (WORKss) cohort

Author

Listed:
  • María Andrée López Gómez
  • Laura Serra
  • George L Delclos
  • Fernando G Benavides

Abstract

Employment has transitioned from stable to more flexible schemes. Little is known about the effects of dynamic working lives and mortality. We examined the association of employment, unemployment and inactivity on mortality among workers born in 1926–1988, in a nested case-control study of workers from the Spanish WORKss cohort. Cases were all deaths that occurred during 2004–2013 and controls were living persons, matched for sex and age at the time the case occurred. We had information on employment from 1981 to 2013. Logistic regression was used to measure the associations between the 3 employment history indicators separately by sex. There were 53,989 cases and an equal number of controls (n = 107,978). More than 16 years employed showed a protective effect against mortality in women (OR = 0.88, 95%CI: 0.81, 0.94) and men (OR = 0.76, 95%CI: 0.70, 0.79). The number of spells and time in unemployment and inactivity were significantly related to mortality in men, but not women. Sensitivity analyses by labor relationship showed stronger associations of unemployment (OR = 1.42, 95%CI: 1.13, 1.78) and inactivity (OR = 1.34; 95%CI: 1.09, 1.65) for temporary workers. Employment gaps are detrimental to health and have worse effects if the gaps occur without unemployment benefits or after temporary contracts. These results may drive improvement of labor and social policies that protect workers against the potential negative effects of dynamic work lives.

Suggested Citation

  • María Andrée López Gómez & Laura Serra & George L Delclos & Fernando G Benavides, 2017. "Employment history indicators and mortality in a nested case-control study from the Spanish WORKing life social security (WORKss) cohort," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(6), pages 1-15, June.
  • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0178486
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0178486
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0178486
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0178486&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0178486?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Artazcoz, L. & Benach, J. & Borrell, C. & Cortès, I., 2004. "Unemployment and Mental Health: Understanding the Interactions among Gender, Family Roles, and Social Class," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 94(1), pages 82-88.
    2. Halliday, Timothy J., 2014. "Unemployment and mortality: Evidence from the PSID," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 15-22.
    3. Korpi, Tomas, 1997. "Is utility related to employment status? Employment, unemployment, labor market policies and subjective well-being among Swedish youth," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 4(2), pages 125-147, June.
    4. Goldin, Claudia, 2006. "The Quiet Revolution That Transformed Women’s Employment, Education, and Family," Scholarly Articles 2943933, Harvard University Department of Economics.
    5. Chan, Sewin & Stevens, Ann Huff, 2001. "Job Loss and Employment Patterns of Older Workers," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 19(2), pages 484-521, April.
    6. Cylus, J. & Glymour, M.M. & Avendano, M., 2015. "Health effects of unemployment benefit program generosity," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 105(2), pages 317-323.
    7. O'Campo, Patricia & Molnar, Agnes & Ng, Edwin & Renahy, Emilie & Mitchell, Christiane & Shankardass, Ketan & St. John, Alexander & Bambra, Clare & Muntaner, Carles, 2015. "Social welfare matters: A realist review of when, how, and why unemployment insurance impacts poverty and health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 88-94.
    8. Claudia Goldin, 2006. "The Quiet Revolution That Transformed Women's Employment, Education, and Family," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 96(2), pages 1-21, May.
    9. Garcy, Anthony M. & Vågerö, Denny, 2012. "The length of unemployment predicts mortality, differently in men and women, and by cause of death: A six year mortality follow-up of the Swedish 1992–1996 recession," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 74(12), pages 1911-1920.
    10. Gerdtham, Ulf-G. & Johannesson, Magnus, 2003. "A note on the effect of unemployment on mortality," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 22(3), pages 505-518, May.
    11. Eikemo, Terje Andreas & Bambra, Clare & Judge, Ken & Ringdal, Kristen, 2008. "Welfare state regimes and differences in self-perceived health in Europe: A multilevel analysis," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 66(11), pages 2281-2295, June.
    12. Dahl, Espen, 1993. "Social inequality in health--The role of the healthy worker effect," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 36(8), pages 1077-1086, April.
    13. Thomas A. Mroz & Timothy H. Savage, 2006. "The Long-Term Effects of Youth Unemployment," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 41(2).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Vicente Núñez-Antón & Juan Manuel Pérez-Salamero González & Marta Regúlez-Castillo & Carlos Vidal-Meliá, 2020. "Improving the Representativeness of a Simple Random Sample: An Optimization Model and Its Application to the Continuous Sample of Working Lives," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 8(8), pages 1-27, July.
    2. Katrien Vanthomme & Sylvie Gadeyne, 2019. "Unemployment and cause-specific mortality among the Belgian working-age population: The role of social context and gender," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(5), pages 1-14, May.
    3. Matilde Leonor Alba-Jurado & María José Aguado-Benedí & Noelia Moreno-Morales & Maria Teresa Labajos-Manzanares & Rocío Martín-Valero, 2021. "Occupation and Sickness Absence in the Different Autonomous Communities of Spain," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(21), pages 1-12, October.
    4. Sarah A. Felknor & Jessica M. K. Streit & Michelle McDaniel & Paul A. Schulte & L. Casey Chosewood & George L. Delclos & on behalf of the Workshop Presenters and Participants, 2021. "How Will the Future of Work Shape OSH Research and Practice? A Workshop Summary," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(11), pages 1-21, May.
    5. Esteban Sánchez-Moreno & Lorena Gallardo-Peralta, 2021. "From Income Inequalities to Social Exclusion: The Impact of the Great Recession on Self-Rated Health in Spain During the Onset of the Economic Crisis," SAGE Open, , vol. 11(4), pages 21582440211, October.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Salm, Martin, 2009. "Does Job Loss Cause Ill Health?," IZA Discussion Papers 4147, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Salm, M, 2008. "Job loss does not cause ill health," Health, Econometrics and Data Group (HEDG) Working Papers 08/16, HEDG, c/o Department of Economics, University of York.
    3. D. Cooper & W. D. McCausland & I. Theodossiou, 2008. "Unemployed, uneducated and sick: the effects of socio‐economic status on health duration in the European Union," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 171(4), pages 939-952, October.
    4. Picchio, Matteo & Ubaldi, Michele, 2022. "Unemployment and Health: A Meta-Analysis," GLO Discussion Paper Series 1128, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    5. Megan M. Reynolds & Patricia A. Homan, 2023. "Income Support Policy Packages and Birth Outcomes in U.S. States: An Ecological Analysis," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 42(4), pages 1-24, August.
    6. Barnette Justin & Reynolds C. Lockwood & Odongo Kennedy, 2021. "Changes Over Time in the Cost of Job Loss for Young Men and Women," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 21(1), pages 335-378, January.
    7. Courtney C. Coile, 2015. "Economic Determinants Of Workers’ Retirement Decisions," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(4), pages 830-853, September.
    8. Keller, Elisa, 2019. "Labor supply and gender differences in occupational choice," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 221-241.
    9. Anne McDaniel & Thomas DiPrete & Claudia Buchmann & Uri Shwed, 2011. "The Black Gender Gap in Educational Attainment: Historical Trends and Racial Comparisons," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 48(3), pages 889-914, August.
    10. Maria J. Prados & Stefania Albanesi, 2011. "Inequality and Household Labor Supply," 2011 Meeting Papers 657, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    11. Herrendorf, Berthold & Rogerson, Richard & Valentinyi, Ákos, 2014. "Growth and Structural Transformation," Handbook of Economic Growth, in: Philippe Aghion & Steven Durlauf (ed.), Handbook of Economic Growth, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 6, pages 855-941, Elsevier.
    12. Benjamin Bennett & Isil Erel & Léa H. Stern & Zexi Wang, 2020. "Paid Leave Pays Off: The Effects of Paid Family Leave on Firm Performance," NBER Working Papers 27788, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Bennett, Patrick & Ravetti, Chiara & Wong, Po Yin, 2021. "Losing in a boom: Long-term consequences of a local economic shock for female labour market outcomes," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    14. Committee, Nobel Prize, 2023. "Scientific Background to the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2023," Nobel Prize in Economics documents 2023-2, Nobel Prize Committee.
    15. Rita K. Almeida & Mariana Viollaz, 2023. "Women in paid employment: a role for public policies and social norms in Guatemala," Oxford Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 51(3), pages 252-279, July.
    16. Stephan E. Maurer & Andrei V. Potlogea, 2021. "Male‐biased Demand Shocks and Women's Labour Force Participation: Evidence from Large Oil Field Discoveries," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 88(349), pages 167-188, January.
    17. Wang, Huixia & Wang, Chenggang & Halliday, Timothy J., 2018. "Health and health inequality during the great recession: Evidence from the PSID," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 17-30.
    18. Agnès Charpin & Josep Amer-Mestre & Noémi Berlin & Magali Dumontet, 2024. "Gender Differences in Early Occupational Choices: Evidence from Medical Specialty Selection," EconomiX Working Papers 2024-5, University of Paris Nanterre, EconomiX.
    19. Stefania Albanesi & Claudia Olivetti, 2006. "Gender roles and technological progress," 2006 Meeting Papers 411, Society for Economic Dynamics.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0178486. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.