Posted Content•
Employment status and perceived health condition: longitudinal data from Italy
TL;DR: Evidence is offered on the relationship between self-reported health and the employment status in Italy using the Survey on Household Income and Wealth (SHIW), which finds that temporary workers, first-job seekers and unemployed individuals are worse off than permanent employees.
Abstract: The considerable increase of non-standard labor contracts, unemployment and inactivity rates raises the question of whether job insecurity and the lack of job opportunities affect physical and mental well-being differently from being employed with an open-ended contract. In this paper we offer evidence on the relationship between Self Reported Health Status (SRHS) and the employment status in Italy using the Survey on Household Income and Wealth; another aim is to investigate whether these potential inequalities have changed with the recent economic downturn (time period 2006-2010). We estimate an ordered logit model with SRHS as response variable based on a fixed-effects approach which has certain advantages with respect to the random-effects formulation and has not been applied before with SRHS data. The fixed-effects nature of the model also allows us to solve the problems of incidental parameters and non-random selection of individuals into different labor market categories. We find that temporary workers, unemployed and inactive individuals are worse off than permanent employees, especially males, young workers, and those living in the center and south of Italy. Health inequalities between unemployed/inactive and permanent workers widen over time for males and young workers, and arise in the north of the country as well.
Citations
More filters
TL;DR: It is concluded that periods of economic recession are possibly associated with a higher prevalence of mental health problems, including common mental disorders, substance disorders, and ultimately suicidal behaviour.
Abstract: Countries in recession experience high unemployment rates and a decline in living conditions, which, it has been suggested, negatively influences their populations’ health. The present review examines the recent evidence of the possible association between economic recessions and mental health outcomes. Literature review of records identified through Medline, PsycINFO, SciELO, and EBSCO Host. Only original research papers, published between 2004 and 2014, peer-reviewed, non-qualitative research, and reporting on associations between economic factors and proxies of mental health were considered. One-hundred-one papers met the inclusion criteria. The evidence was consistent that economic recessions and mediators such as unemployment, income decline, and unmanageable debts are significantly associated with poor mental wellbeing, increased rates of common mental disorders, substance-related disorders, and suicidal behaviours. On the basis of a thorough analysis of the selected investigations, we conclude that periods of economic recession are possibly associated with a higher prevalence of mental health problems, including common mental disorders, substance disorders, and ultimately suicidal behaviour. Most of the research is based on cross-sectional studies, which seriously limits causality inferences. Conclusions are summarised, taking into account international policy recommendations concerning the cost-effective measures that can possibly reduce the occurrence of negative mental health outcomes in populations during periods of economic recession.
386 citations
Cites background from "Employment status and perceived hea..."
...[29] National population sample, Italy Cohort 37,782 (2006–2010) 15–64 y Inter-time Variables Psychosocial/economic indicators Pre- and post- recession period Employment Status Psychological Well-being Self-rated health Temporary workers, first job seekers and unemployed individuals all perceive their health as being worse than permanent workers do....
[...]
...viduals were amplified after the onset of the recession [29]....
[...]
...tion [28, 29, 33, 39], although Icelandic and Swedish...
[...]
TL;DR: There is evidence that young people are especially vulnerable to health problems when unemployed or working in precarious conditions, and active labour market and training programmes, inclusive social security measures, improved working conditions and targeted health programmes are important for addressing this vulnerability.
Abstract: Background: The impact of unemployment and precarious employment on the health of young people is not well understood. However, according to social causation, higher socio-economic positions and th...
101 citations
Cites background from "Employment status and perceived hea..."
...Lack of economic and social benefits [36, 42, 48, 67, 70, 79]...
[...]
...[12, 35-79] in the actual review (see Figure 1)....
[...]
TL;DR: In this article, the authors apply a dynamic panel data estimator (system GMM) to account for both unobserved confounders and reverse causality, and find strong support for the causality thesis.
47 citations
TL;DR: Race by gender heterogeneity in the residual effect of restless sleep over depressive symptoms on CMC over 25 years suggests that comorbid poor sleep and depressive symptoms differently contribute to development of multi-morbidity among subpopulations based on the intersection of race and gender.
Abstract: Sleep and depression are comorbid problems that contribute to the development of chronic medical conditions (CMC) over time. Although racial and gender differences in the bidirectional associations between sleep, depression, and CMC are known, very limited information exists on heterogeneity of the residual effects of sleep problems over depressive symptoms on CMC across race by gender groups. Using a life-course perspective, the present study compared race by gender groups for residual effects of restless sleep over depressive symptoms on CMC. We used data from waves 1 (year 1986), 4 (year 2001), and 5 (year 2011) of the Americans’ Changing Lives Study (ACL). The study followed 294 White men, 108 Black men, 490 White women, and 237 Black women for 25 years. Restless sleep, depressive symptoms (Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression scale [CES-D]), and number of chronic medical conditions (hypertension, diabetes, chronic lung disease, heart disease, stroke, cancer, and arthritis) were measured in 1986, 2001, and 2011. We employed multi-group cross-lagged modeling, with chronic medical conditions as the outcome and race by gender as the groups. Major group differences were found in the residual effect of restless sleep on CMC over depressive symptoms across race by gender groups. Restless sleep in 2001 predicted CMC 10 years later in 2011 among Black women (standardized adjusted B = .135, P .05). Race by gender heterogeneity in the residual effect of restless sleep over depressive symptoms on CMC over 25 years suggests that comorbid poor sleep and depressive symptoms differently contribute to development of multi-morbidity among subpopulations based on the intersection of race and gender. Thus, interventions that try to prevent comorbid sleep problems and depression as a strategy to prevent medical conditions may benefit from tailoring based on the intersection of race and gender.
46 citations
TL;DR: Mental health was generally poorer in both male and female employees as a result of precarious employment, and males were also at higher risk of mortality.
Abstract: Aim:Precarious employment is known to be detrimental to health, and some population subgroups (young individuals, migrant workers, and females) are at higher risk of precarious employment. However,...
33 citations
References
More filters
TL;DR: In this article, the null hypothesis of no misspecification was used to show that an asymptotically efficient estimator must have zero covariance with its difference from a consistent but asymptonically inefficient estimator, and specification tests for a number of model specifications in econometrics.
Abstract: Using the result that under the null hypothesis of no misspecification an asymptotically efficient estimator must have zero asymptotic covariance with its difference from a consistent but asymptotically inefficient estimator, specification tests are devised for a number of model specifications in econometrics. Local power is calculated for small departures from the null hypothesis. An instrumental variable test as well as tests for a time series cross section model and the simultaneous equation model are presented. An empirical model provides evidence that unobserved individual factors are present which are not orthogonal to the included right-hand-side variable in a common econometric specification of an individual wage equation.
16,198 citations
"Employment status and perceived hea..." refers methods in this paper
...Finally, we test the fixed-effects type against the random-effects specification of the model by means of the Hausman test [39]: under the null hypothesis of correct specification of the joint distribution of αi and εit , both the fixed-effects and the random-effects estimators are consistent but the latter is more efficient; under the alternative, only the fixed-effects estimator is consistent....
[...]
TL;DR: This work examines the growing number of studies of survey respondents' global self-ratings of health as predictors of mortality in longitudinal studies of representative community samples and suggests several approaches to the next stage of research in this field.
Abstract: We examine the growing number of studies of survey respondents' global self-ratings of health as predictors of mortality in longitudinal studies of representative community samples. Twenty-seven studies in U.S. and international journals show impressively consistent findings. Global self-rated health is an independent predictor of mortality in nearly all of the studies, despite the inclusion of numerous specific health status indicators and other relevant covariates known to predict mortality. We summarize and review these studies, consider various interpretations which could account for the association, and suggest several approaches to the next stage of research in this field.
7,940 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the problem of finding consistent estimators in other models is non-trivial, however, since the number of incidental parameters is increasing with sample size, and it is well known that analysis of covariance in the linear regression model does not have this consistency property.
Abstract: This paper deals with data that has a group structure. A simple example in the context of a linear regression model is E(yitlx, 1S, ar) = P'xit + ai (i = 1, ...,9 N; t = 1, ... T), where there are T observations within each of N groups. The ai are group specific parameters. Our primary concern is with the estimation of f3, a parameter vector common to all groups. The role of the ai is to control for group specific effects; i.e. for omitted variables that are constant within a group. The regression function that does not condition on the group will not in general identify 1: E(yitlx, 13) 0 1'xit. In this case there is an omitted variable bias. An important application is generated by longitudinal or panel data, in which there are two or more observations on each individual. Then the group is the individual, and the ai capture individual differences. If these person effects are correlated with x, then a regression function that fails to control for them will not identify f. In another important application the group is a family, with observations on two or more siblings within the family. Then the ai capture omitted variables that are family specific, and they give a concrete representation to family background. We shall assume that observations from different groups are independent. Then the ai are incidental parameters (Neyman and Scott (1948)), and 0, which is common to the independent sampling units, is a vector of structural parameters. In the application to sibling data, T is small, typically T= 2, whereas there may be a large number of families. Small T and large N are also characteristic of many of the currently available longitudinal data sets. So a basic statistical issue is to develop an estimator for j that has good properties in this case. In particular, the estimator ought to be consistent as N -> ac for fixed T. It is well-known that analysis of covariance in the linear regression model does have this consistency property. The problem of finding consistent estimators in other models is non-trivial, however, since the number of incidental parameters is increasing with sample size. We shall work with the following probability model: Yit is a binary variable with
2,398 citations
"Employment status and perceived hea..." refers methods in this paper
...The estimation of an ordered fixed-effects logit model can be reduced to the estimation of a fixed-effects binary logit model [35-37] once the K category responses have been transformed in K - 1 binary response variables categories....
[...]
...jSee [37] and [38] for further details....
[...]
Posted Content•
TL;DR: In this paper, the joint maximum likelihood estimator of the structural parameters is not consistent as the number of groups increases, with a fixed number of observations per group, and a conditional likelihood function is maximized, conditional on sufficient statistics for the incidental parameters.
Abstract: In data with a group structure, incidental parameters are included to control for missing variables. Applications include longitudinal data and sibling data. In general, the joint maximum likelihood estimator of the structural parameters is not consistent as the number of groups increases, with a fixed number of observations per group. Instead a conditional likelihood function is maximized, conditional on sufficient statistics for the incidental parameters. In the logit case, a standard conditional logit program can be used. Another solution is a random effects model, in which the distribution of the incidental parameters may depend upon the exogenous variables.
2,338 citations
TL;DR: A model describing the health assessment process is proposed to show how self-rated health can reflect the states of the human body and mind and the focus is on the social and biological pathways that mediate information from the human organism to individual consciousness.
1,938 citations