The association between precarious employment and stress among working aged individuals in the United States

Citation

Oddo, V. M.; Mabrouk, S.; Andrea, S. B.; Ahonen, E. Q.; Winkler, M. R.; Vignola, E. F.; & Hajat, A. (2024). The association between precarious employment and stress among working aged individuals in the United States. Prev Med. vol. 187

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: Precarious employment is a plausible stressor, which may adversely affect health. We investigated the association between multidimensional precarious employment and perceived and biological stress in the U.S. METHODS: We used data from waves 4 (2008-2009) and 5 (2016-2018) of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health. Eight indicators were mapped to five dimensions of precarious employment to create a continuous score (PES, range: 0-5): material rewards, working-time arrangements, stability, workers' rights, and interpersonal relationships. Perceived stress was constructed from the four-item Cohen's perceived stress score (PSS; range: 0-16; wave 4). We measured biological stress in waves 4 and 5 via C-reactive protein (CRP). Given variability in CRP collection between waves, we treated wave 4 and 5 as cross-sectional. We employed adjusted linear regression models to estimate whether the PES was associated with the PSS in wave 4 (n = 11,510) and CRP in waves 4 (n = 10,343) and 5 (n = 3452). RESULT: Individuals were aged 28 and 37 years on average in wave 4 and 5, respectively. Half were female and most identified as non-Hispanic (NH)-White (∼73 %), followed by NH-Black (∼14 %), Hispanic (∼9 %) and NH-other (∼4 %). Average PES was inversely related to education. The PSS averaged 8.1 (Interquartile Range [IQR] = 7.0,9.0). Average CRP was 4.4 mg/L (IQR = 0.8,5.0) in wave 4 and 3.6 mg/L (IQR = 0.8,4.2) in wave 5. The PES was associated with perceived stress (β=0.06; 95 % CI = 0.01,0.10) and CRP in wave 5 (β=0.34; 95 % CI = 0.07,0.62). CONCLUSIONS: Given the deleterious effects of stress on health, policies to reduce precarious employment warrant consideration.

URL

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ypmed.2024.108123

Keyword(s)

Humans

Notes

1096-0260

Reference Type

Journal Article

Journal Title

Prev Med

Author(s)

Oddo, V. M.
Mabrouk, S.
Andrea, S. B.
Ahonen, E. Q.
Winkler, M. R.
Vignola, E. F.
Hajat, A.

Year Published

2024

Volume Number

187

Edition

2024/09/01

DOI

10.1016/j.ypmed.2024.108123

Reference ID

10480