Effect of unequal employment status on workers’ health: Results from a Japanese national survey

Abstract

This study assesses the possibility of a period effect on Japanese workers' health and its association with historical changes in the work environment. We used multi-year national cross-sectional surveys, the Comprehensive Survey of Living Conditions for 2001, 2004, and 2007, and estimated the period effect on the health of employed workers aged 18-65 years. The prevalence of ill-health indicators (poor self-rated health status, subjective symptoms, and the number of respondents receiving consultations from medical doctors and other health professionals) significantly increased during this period. Deteriorating trends in these health indicators persisted after adjusting for age and cohort effects and for individual factors such as employment, marital, and child-rearing status. Furthermore, after adjusting for income level as an individual factor, deteriorating trends remained for the poor self-rated health status of male employees, subjective symptoms of female employees, and receiving medical consultations for both genders. The health status of employed workers in Japan deteriorated, especially from 2004 to 2007, regardless of age and cohort effects. After taking individual socio-economic factors and the effects of the recession on society into consideration, we hypothesized a posteriori that the increase in precarious non-regular work may be the main factor underlying this period effect and may be the cause of the deterioration in workers' health.

Employment status and perceived health condition: longitudinal data from Italy

“…Workers unsatisfied with their contract terms [16] report lower self-rated health and the insecurity due to contract uncertainty is such that transitions from unemployment to fixed-term employment does not increase the perceived health condition, at least in the short run [17]. In addition, self-rated health is sensitive to economic deprivation due to intermittent spells of employment, so that workers are unsatisfied with their material reward [18], and to the lack of benefits provided by a stronger employment protection [19]. Recently, cross-country analyses have also been carried out with the purpose of highlighting differences in the link between insecurity and poor health within Europe.…”

Differences in Self‐rated Health by Employment Contract and Household Structure among Japanese Employees: A Nationwide Cross‐sectional Study

“…Finally, we calculated the relative poverty rate by employment contract and household structure based on the definition described above. In line with previous studies based on data from the CSLC 29,35) , we did not adjust the sample weights because the CSLC is not strictly based on probabilistic sampling and the sample weights the government offers are only useful for expanding the estimated totals of the number of households or household members from a sample to the subnational level 26) . All analyses were conducted using R version 2.12.2 36) .…”

“…selected from five possible response options ("excellent", "very good", "good", "fair" or "poor"). Following previous studies based on data from the CSLC 29) , we classified these responses into the following two categories: "fair/ poor" or "excellent/very good/good". Previous studies have shown SRH to be a validated indicator of overall health and to be an independent predictor of overall mortality 30) .…”

The possible absence of a healthy-worker effect: a cross-sectional survey among educated Japanese women

“…An a posteriori hypothesis suggested that the increase in precarious non-regular work may have been the main cause of the deterioration in workers' health. 34 The working conditions of nonregular workers are known to be very poor compared with those of regular workers in terms of salary and welfare systems, 26 and opportunities to be a full-time regular worker are very limited. Indeed, it is often the case that only new graduates became regular workers.…”