dc.contributor.author |
López Ruiz, María, 1982- |
dc.contributor.author |
Artazcoz Lazcano, Lucía, 1963- |
dc.contributor.author |
Martínez Martínez, José Miguel, 1974- |
dc.contributor.author |
Rojas, Marianela |
dc.contributor.author |
Benavides, Fernando G. (Fernando García) |
dc.date |
2015 |
dc.identifier.citation |
López-Ruiz M, Artazcoz L, Martínez JM, Rojas M, Benavides FG. Informal employment and health status in Central America. BMC Public Health. 2015 Jul 24;15:698. doi: 10.1186/s12889-015-2030-9. |
dc.identifier.citation |
1471-2458 |
dc.identifier.citation |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12889-015-2030-9 |
dc.identifier.uri |
http://hdl.handle.net/10230/24850 |
dc.format |
application/pdf |
dc.language.iso |
eng |
dc.publisher |
BioMed Central |
dc.rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
dc.rights |
© 2015 López-Ruiz et al. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution/nLicense (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any/nmedium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http:///ncreativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated. |
dc.rights |
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
dc.subject |
Ocupació |
dc.subject |
Amèrica Central -- Condicions socials |
dc.title |
Informal employment and health status in Central America. |
dc.type |
info:eu-repo/semantics/article |
dc.type |
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion |
dc.description.abstract |
BACKGROUND: Informal employment is assumed to be an important but seldom studied social determinant of health, affecting a large number of workers around the world. Although informal employment arrangements constitute a permanent, structural pillar of many labor markets in low- and middle-income countries, studies about its relationship with health status are still scarce. In Central America more than 60% of non-agricultural workers have informal employment. Therefore, we aimed to assess differences in self-perceived and mental health status of Central Americans with different patterns of informal and formal employment. METHODS:/nEmployment profiles were created by combining employment relations (employees, self-employed, employers), social security coverage (yes/no) and type of contract--only for employees--(written, oral, none), in a cross-sectional study of 8,823 non-agricultural workers based on the I Central American Survey of Working Conditions and Health of 2011. Using logistic regression models, adjusted odds ratios (aOR) by country, age and occupation, of poor self-perceived and mental health were calculated by sex. Different models were first fitted separately for the three dimensions of employment conditions, then for employment profiles as independent variables. RESULTS: Poor self-perceived health was reported by 34% of women and 27% of men, and 30% of women and 26% of men reported poor mental health. Lack of social security coverage was associated with poor self-perceived health (women, aOR: 1.38, 95% CI: 1.13-1.67; men, aOR: 1.36, 95% CI: 1.13-1.63). Almost all employment profiles with no social security coverage were significantly associated with poor self-perceived and poor mental health in both sexes. CONCLUSIONS: Our results show that informal employment is a significant factor in social health inequalities among Central American workers, which could be diminished by policies aimed at increasing social security coverage. |