IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v10y2013i7p2871-2887d27079.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Health Inequalities among Workers with a Foreign Background in Sweden: Do Working Conditions Matter?

Author

Listed:
  • Andrea C. Dunlavy

    (Centre for Health Equity Studies (CHESS), Stockholm University/Karolinska Institute, SE-106 91 Stockholm, Sweden)

  • Mikael Rostila

    (Centre for Health Equity Studies (CHESS), Stockholm University/Karolinska Institute, SE-106 91 Stockholm, Sweden)

Abstract

Employment and working conditions are key social determinants of health, yet current information is lacking regarding relationships between foreign background status, working conditions and health among workers in Sweden. This study utilized cross-sectional data from the 2010 Swedish Level of Living Survey (LNU) and the Level of Living Survey for Foreign Born Persons and their Children (LNU-UFB) to assess whether or not health inequalities exist between native Swedish and foreign background workers and if exposure to adverse psychosocial and physical working conditions contributes to the risk for poor health among foreign background workers. A sub-sample of 4,021 employed individuals aged 18–65 was analyzed using logistic regression. Eastern European, Latin American and Other Non-Western workers had an increased risk of both poor self-rated health and mental distress compared to native Swedish workers. Exposure to adverse working conditions only minimally influenced the risk of poor health. Further research should examine workers who are less integrated or who have less secure labor market attachments and also investigate how additional working conditions may influence associations between health and foreign background status.

Suggested Citation

  • Andrea C. Dunlavy & Mikael Rostila, 2013. "Health Inequalities among Workers with a Foreign Background in Sweden: Do Working Conditions Matter?," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 10(7), pages 1-17, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:10:y:2013:i:7:p:2871-2887:d:27079
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/10/7/2871/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/10/7/2871/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Åslund, Olof & Nordström Skans, Oskar, 2005. "Will I see you at work? Ethnic workplace segregation in Sweden 1985–2002," Working Paper Series 2005:24, IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy.
    2. Johnson, J.V. & Stewart, W. & Hall, E.M. & Fredlund, P. & Theorell, T., 1996. "Long-term psychosocial work environment and cardiovascular mortality among Swedish men," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 86(3), pages 324-331.
    3. Mackenbach, Johan P., 2012. "The persistence of health inequalities in modern welfare states: The explanation of a paradox," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 75(4), pages 761-769.
    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. Basak Yanar & Agnieszka Kosny & Peter M. Smith, 2018. "Occupational Health and Safety Vulnerability of Recent Immigrants and Refugees," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(9), pages 1-16, September.
    2. Janki Shankar & Daniel Lai & Shu-Ping Chen & Tanvir C. Turin & Shawn Joseph & Ellen Mi, 2022. "Highly Educated Immigrant Workers’ Perspectives of Occupational Health and Safety and Work Conditions That Challenge Work Safety," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(14), pages 1-18, July.
    3. Pinar Aslan Akay & Nader Ahmadi, 2022. "The Work Environment of Immigrant Employees in Sweden—a Systematic Review," Journal of International Migration and Integration, Springer, vol. 23(4), pages 2235-2268, December.
    4. Elisabeth Ugreninov, 2023. "Absence Due to Sickness Among Female Immigrants: Disadvantages Over the Career?," Journal of International Migration and Integration, Springer, vol. 24(3), pages 1455-1475, September.

    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. Glitz, Albrecht, 2014. "Ethnic segregation in Germany," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 28-40.
    2. Lina Schollin Ask & Can Liu & Karl Gauffin & Anders Hjern, 2019. "The Effect of Rotavirus Vaccine on Socioeconomic Differentials of Paediatric Care Due to Gastroenteritis in Swedish Infants," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(7), pages 1-10, March.
    3. Olof Östergren & Pekka Martikainen & Olle Lundberg, 2018. "The contribution of alcohol consumption and smoking to educational inequalities in life expectancy among Swedish men and women during 1991–2008," International Journal of Public Health, Springer;Swiss School of Public Health (SSPH+), vol. 63(1), pages 41-48, January.
    4. Liliya Leopold & Thomas Leopold, 2016. "Education and Health across Lives and Cohorts: A Study of Cumulative Advantage in Germany," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 835, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    5. Alaimo, Leonardo Salvatore & Ivaldi, Enrico & Landi, Stefano & Maggino, Filomena, 2022. "Measuring and evaluating socio-economic inequality in small areas: An application to the urban units of the Municipality of Genoa," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    6. Teresa Leão & Inês Campos-Matos & Clare Bambra & Giuliano Russo & Julian Perelman, 2018. "Welfare states, the Great Recession and health: Trends in educational inequalities in self-reported health in 26 European countries," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(2), pages 1-14, February.
    7. Laura Cacciani & Anna Maria Bargagli & Giulia Cesaroni & Francesco Forastiere & Nera Agabiti & Marina Davoli, 2015. "Education and Mortality in the Rome Longitudinal Study," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(9), pages 1-12, September.
    8. Smed, Sinne & Hansen, Lars Garn, 2018. "Consumer Valuation of Health Attributes in Food," Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Western Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 43(2), May.
    9. Vonneilich, Nico & Lüdecke, Daniel & von dem Knesebeck, Olaf, 2020. "Educational inequalities in self-rated health and social relationships – analyses based on the European Social Survey 2002-2016," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 267(C).
    10. Elgar, Frank J. & De Clercq, Bart & Schnohr, Christina W. & Bird, Phillippa & Pickett, Kate E. & Torsheim, Torbjørn & Hofmann, Felix & Currie, Candace, 2013. "Absolute and relative family affluence and psychosomatic symptoms in adolescents," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 25-31.
    11. Etile, Fabrice, 2014. "Education policies and health inequalities: Evidence from changes in the distribution of Body Mass Index in France, 1981–2003," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 13(C), pages 46-65.
    12. Christian Dustmann & Albrecht Glitz & Uta Schönberg & Herbert Brücker, 2016. "Referral-based Job Search Networks," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 83(2), pages 514-546.
    13. Claudia Börnhorst & Dörte Heger & Anne Mensen, 2019. "Associations of childhood health and financial situation with quality of life after retirement – regional variation across Europe," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(4), pages 1-17, April.
    14. Jonathan Zufferey, 2016. "Investigating the migrant mortality advantage at the intersections of social stratification in Switzerland," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 34(32), pages 899-926.
    15. Cinzia Di Novi & Anna Marenzi & Dino Rizzi, 2018. "Do healthcare tax credits help poor-health individuals on low incomes?," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 19(2), pages 293-307, March.
    16. Johan Fritzell & Neda Agahi & Marja Jylhä & Tine Rostgaard, 2022. "Social inequalities in ageing in the Nordic countries," European Journal of Ageing, Springer, vol. 19(2), pages 155-159, June.
    17. Rydland, Håvard T. & Solheim, Erling F. & Eikemo, Terje A., 2020. "Educational inequalities in high- vs. low-preventable health conditions: Exploring the fundamental cause theory," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 267(C).
    18. Felix C.H. Gottschalk, 2019. "Why prevent when it does not pay? Prevention when health services are credence goods," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(5), pages 693-709, May.
    19. Maren Kraft & Koos Arts & Tanja Traag & Ferdy Otten & Hans Bosma, 2017. "Is personality a driving force for socioeconomic differences in young adults’ health care use? A prospective cohort study," International Journal of Public Health, Springer;Swiss School of Public Health (SSPH+), vol. 62(7), pages 795-802, September.
    20. Eleftherios Giovanis & Oznur Ozdamar & Sahizer Samuk, 2021. "Health status and willingness-to-pay estimates for the benefits of improved recycling rates: evidence from Great Britain," SN Business & Economics, Springer, vol. 1(1), pages 1-28, January.

    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:gam:jijerp:v:10:y:2013:i:7:p:2871-2887:d:27079. 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: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    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.