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PubMed1985

Employment status, employment characteristics, and women's health.

This study looked at characteristics of employment which are related to positive health among women. Aspects of employment which may account for health status differences between employed women and those not in the labor force were also studied. The subjects were 1140 adult females, aged 18 through 64. Medical record data covering seven years of inpatient and outpatient services were linked with survey data of the respondents. For all ages, women employed in jobs with a higher degree of social support and integration had better health than women in jobs with little social support and integration through work. The findings suggest that the social support and integration gained through work is a salient aspect of employment which contributes to health status differences between employed women and those not participating in the labor force.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2001

The work impact of asthma and rhinitis: findings from a population-based survey.

Asthma and rhinitis are common chronic conditions that affect adults of working age. Little is known about their relative impacts on work loss and decreased productivity. Using random digit telephone dialing, we carried out a population-survey of adults in Northern California aged 18-50 years. We interviewed 125 persons with asthma (with or without concomitant rhinitis) and 175 persons with rhinitis alone. Study eligibility was based on subject report of a physician's diagnosis of asthma and/or a rhinitis-related condition. Any adult labor force participation since condition onset was lower among those with asthma (88%) than among those with rhinitis alone (97%) (P = 0.002). In contrast, among those still employed, decreased job effectiveness was more frequently reported in the rhinitis group (43 of 121; 36%) compared to those with asthma (14 of 72; 19%) (P = 0.02). Condition-attributed lost work was common in both groups, with more than 20% reporting one or more complete or partial work days lost in the 4 weeks previous to interview. Taking into account age, gender, race, and smoking status, those with asthma were more likely to have no labor force participation after diagnosis (OR = 3.0; 95% CI 1.1-7.7) and less likely to report decreased job effectiveness among those remaining employed (OR = 0.4; 95% CI 0.2-0.9). Excluding subjects from the rhinitis group most likely to have unreported asthma based on past medication use had little impact on these associations. Both asthma and rhinitis negatively affect work productivity. Those with asthma are less likely to be employed at all, while among those remaining on the job, rhinitis is a more potent cause of decreased work effectiveness. The economic impact of asthma and rhinitis and related conditions may be under-appreciated.

Absenteeism↗
PubMed1998

Career trajectories and older men's retirement.

The idea of a long and stable career rewarded by retirement is a fixture of the American social ethos and political economy. The paradox is that many Americans' careers do not fit this image. Here, we examined how the structure of the career, as compared to only those circumstances proximate to retirement, is important for understanding career endings. Based on labor force histories drawn from the National Longitudinal Survey of Older Men, we observed that the occupational roles held through the mid and late career combine additively to influence retirement and disability experiences, with different conditions of work coming into play depending on the career stage. Occupational roles in the mid career also have long-term, indirect effects, operating through the onset of health problems and the adequacy of pension benefits. Although retirement and disability are not hinged to occupational mobility per se, these career endings are sensitive to major discontinuities in the career and work role in terms of unemployment and labor force mobility.

Aged↗
PubMed1976

A comparison between Northern and Southern blacks residing in the North.

Differences between Southern and non-Southern blacks living in the North and West are considered for a wide variety of attributes such as employment, occupation, income, marital stability, and offspring's performance in school. Migrant blacks have generally more favorable rates than their Northern- and Western-born compatriots after standard domographic controls are applied to an unusually detailed set of cross-tabulations based on the One-Percent Sample Tapes for 1960. Perhaps the sharpest gap exists with respect to marital conditions; Southern blacks of both sexes are more likely to marry and, among those ever married, live more frequently with their spouses. Some of the results reported by earlier investigators require considerable modification; For example, the fact that Northern black men are less often at work than migrants has led to speculations about regional differences in work orientation among blacks, but a detailed analysis of labor force activity indicates this pattern does not hold for women. Likewise, the migrant income advantage is found to vary by education such that it is confined to those with low educational attainment. The use of sample tapes permits a novel analysis of differences between Northern-born blacks classified by whether they are second or at least third generation residents of the North (children of Southern- or Northern-born parents, respectively). For the attribute measured, school performance, the gap is essentially nil. Finally, an alternative is suggested to the existing causal interpretations of North-South gaps among black residents of the North. Reconsidered in particular are the higher labor force rates of migrant men and their more frequent employment in blue collar jobs;

Adult↗
PubMed1986

Sources of immigrants' language proficiency: Australian results with comparisons to the Federal Republic of Germany and the United States of America.

Recent research on immigrants in the Federal Republic of Germany and the US suggests that their amount of education, the country in which they attained it, and their labor force experience both before and after migrating all have important effects on their skills in the language of the host country. This paper explores those influences on the English language proficiency of 4 groups of immigrants to Australia: 1) those from Northwestern Europe, 2) Eastern Europe, 3) the Mediterranean basin, and 4) the Third World. The data are drawn from the 1% public use sample of the 1981 Australian census. The models are flexible ordinary least squares specifications that permit a variety of curvilinear na interaction effects. The results generally parallel those for the Federal Republic of Germany and the US. 1 important difference from the US is that the harmful effect of foreign labor experience is greater than the beneficial effect of labor force experience in the host country.

Americas↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Evaluating the initial impact of eliminating the retirement earnings test.

Under the retirement earnings test, Social Security benefits are reduced if earnings exceed specified amounts, although the benefit reduction is partly offset by future benefit increases. By imposing a tax on the earnings of beneficiaries, the earnings test provided a disincentive for them to supplement retirement income by working. The Senior Citizens Freedom to Work Act of 2000 eliminated the earnings test for Social Security beneficiaries who have reached the full retirement age. This article presents the first study of labor force activity (earnings and employment) among individuals aged 65-69 before and immediately after this sudden rule change. Drawing on Social Security administrative data, the author examines three widely expected reactions: increased return to work, increased hours worked, and accelerated applications for old-age benefits. The analysis finds that removing the retirement earnings test: Encouraged some workers to increase their earnings. The increases in earnings are large and significant among higher earners but are not statistically significant among lower earners. Had little effect on employment. Removing the earnings test appears to have had no immediate, significant effect on the employment rate of older workers. Employment of older people may be affected in the longer run, however. Slightly increased the pace of applications for benefits. Applications rose about 2 percent in the 65-69 age group in 2000. The overall acceleration will probably be small, however, because most individuals in this age group apply for benefits before reaching the full retirement age. Although the current analysis captures the effects of retaining older workers in the labor force, these initial results may not capture all the effects of eliminating the retirement earnings test, however, for two reasons. First, the analysis covers only a single year--the year the earnings test was eliminated. Since eliminating the earnings test may have had little effect on people who had already retired, its full effect may not be apparent for several years. Second, the analysis applies only to workers aged 65-69. Eliminating the earnings test for people above the full retirement age may also encourage younger workers to delay retirement and therefore increase their labor supply. Further analysis will therefore be required to determine the longer-run impact of eliminating the retirement earnings test.

Actuarial Analysis↗
PubMed2004

High work disability rate among rheumatoid arthritis patients in Lithuania.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate labor force characteristics among patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in Lithuania. To assess if Lithuania's transition from a state-planned to a free-market economy after 1990 changed the employment perspectives of patients with RA. METHODS: RA patients, age 16-65 years (n = 238), were randomly selected from the RA register in Vilnius. They completed questions about sociodemographics, working status, and disease characteristics, they underwent a clinical examination, and they completed the modified Health Assessment Questionnaire and the Short Form 36. RESULTS: Age- and sex-adjusted employment was 24.2% lower and work disability 51.7% higher in patients compared with the general population in Lithuania. After 10 years of disease, 48% of the patients had withdrawn from the labor force. In those with a paid job, the average sick leave in the past year was 31.9 days compared with the national average of 10.8 days. Although disease activity was not significantly different in employed compared with work-disabled patients, physical function and perceived quality of life (except general health) were worse among patients with work disability. The change in economic organization in 1990 was noted to increase the risk for work withdrawal by a factor of 2.75 (95% confidence interval 1.68-4.53). CONCLUSION: In Lithuania, the impact of RA on work disability is important. Although work disability in Lithuanian patients with RA seems more pronounced compared with reports from Western societies, variables associated with work disability are comparable. The transition to a market-orientated economy in 1990 increased the risk of becoming work disabled.

Absenteeism↗
PubMed1992

Use of provincial health insurance plan billing data to estimate carpal tunnel syndrome morbidity and surgery rates.

Following a work refusal at a plant manufacturing ice cream novelties in Ontario, we were asked to document cases of cumulative trauma disorders (CTDs) and carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) in this workplace. There were 17 employees with possible hand and wrist problems identified from Workers Compensation Board (WCB) Forms, and from a list prepared at the time of the refusal. After obtaining consents, confirmations of the diagnoses of CTDs, CTS, and of surgical procedures for CTS were obtained from the physicians involved. The relative risk for these disorders among plant employees was estimated in two ways: 1) the rate of CTS operations between 1979 and 1990 was compared to that in the general population using Ontario Health Insurance Plan (OHIP) data on physicians' billings for these operations; and 2) the frequency of WCB first payment claims for tendinitis and CTS during 1987 to 1989 at the plant was compared to that among the entire labor force of Ontario. CTDs had been diagnosed in all 17 workers: 9 had had operations for CTS, but one had had this operation prior to working at the plant. Compared to the remaining 8 workers who had CTS operations, an estimated 0.08 CTS operations would be expected among the 150 employees on the plant's seniority lists between 1979 and 1990, if the estimated rates in the general population were present at the plant, giving a Standardized Morbidity Ratio of 10.0 (95% confidence interval [CI] 4.3-19.7; one-sided p = 2.1 x 10(-6)). There were 6 WCB claims for tendinitis and CTS among plant employees during 1987 through 1989. This frequency was about 68 times that in the entire Ontario labor force (95% CI 24.7-150). This investigation has shown that CTDs, and particularly CTS, documented by medical records, have occurred at least 10 times more frequently than expected at this plant. Use of health insurance billing data to estimate CTS operation rates represents a simple method for estimating the burden of illness at the individual plant level due to CTS (at least for that portion proceeding to surgery), using an objective outcome that can be confirmed from medical records.

Adult↗
PubMed1987

Gender and race differences in effects of health and pension on retirement before 65.

Prior work on early retirement has given inadequate attention to differences by gender and race in the influences of health and pension on the decision to leave the labor force before 65. A study of previously or currently employed black and white men and women aged 60 to 64 reveals that white males were most likely to be retired and black women the least. Bivariate analysis showed that activity limitations and the presence of chronic health conditions were related to early retirement for men, but not for women. Analysis of women by race showed that while white women who assessed their health as poor were likely to be retired, black women in poor health were apt to be still working. Pension coverage was unrelated to early retirement for both genders. Logistic regression was used to analyze the simultaneous effects of health, pension and race on men's and women's decisions to leave the labor force early, with other variables controlled. The results led to the conclusion that different motivations toward early retirement apply to women and men, and blacks as compared to whites.

Black or African American↗
PubMed1999

Breastfeeding practices among employed Thai women in Chiang Mai.

In many developing countries, labor force participation by women in the childbearing years has increased rapidly. Social and economic changes present new challenges for women attempting to combine their roles as workers and mothers. Little is known about how these challenges affect infant feeding choices. This multidisciplinary study investigated work and infant feeding decisions among 313 employed women in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Resumption of employment generally had negative affects on breastfeeding rates and duration. At 6 months postpartum, women who worked inside the home breastfed more than those working in the formal sector at jobs with inflexible hours (home, 80%; public sector, 37%; private sector, 39%). Women who were working outside the home for a long period or had shift jobs encountered many obstacles to maintaining breastfeeding, and most gave it up within 1 month after resuming employment. There is a need for multisectoral policies that address obstacles to breastfeeding among women in the paid labor force in Thailand.

Adult↗
PubMed2001

Contribution of job satisfaction to happiness of Asian Americans.

Many demographic and labor force characteristics, such as family income, educational attainment, and occupation, correlated with job satisfaction. Since Asian Americans are more like Euro-Americans than African Americans in most of these characteristics, it seems reasonable to predict that their job satisfaction would be high as for Euro-Americans rather than low as for African Americans. Yet research of Weaver and Hinson showed that the opposite is true. One explanation for this unexpected result is that Asians do not think of jobs as a source of happiness but simply as a means of earning money to underwrite other aspects of their lives, such as the well-being of their families, which are the main sources of their happiness. The hypothesis was tested that job satisfaction does not contribute to the happiness of Asian Americans in comparison to satisfaction from other domains of their lives. Analysis was conducted of the attitudes of Asian-American (n = 160), African-American (n = 602), and Euro-American (n = 6,477) workers who responded to 22 surveys drawn from 1972 to 1998, each of which was representative of the labor force of the USA. The hypothesis was supported by the finding that the partial correlation of job satisfaction and global happiness with satisfaction in seven other domains of life (marriage, financial condition, community, nonwork activities, family, health and physical condition, and friendships) held constant was significant for Euro-American women and men but not for Asian Americans or African Americans of either sex. And, the same result occurred when global happiness was regressed on job satisfaction net the effects of satisfaction in other seven domains.

Adult↗
PubMed1997

Work while receiving disability insurance benefits: additional findings from the New Beneficiary Followup Survey.

From the foregoing analyses, the following picture emerges about persons who work after award of DI benefits: Almost one-quarter of the sample population attempted to reenter the labor force in the 10-year NBS-NBF period. The higher the level of education, the greater the proportion of persons who worked. Younger beneficiaries were more likely to work than older beneficiaries. About half of the beneficiaries who worked did so on a full-time (40-hour-or-more per week) basis. Most beneficiaries worked because of financial need. The profile of reasons for working did not vary across demographic groups and aspects of the first job held. Most beneficiaries began working without attributing this decision to an improvement in their health. Individuals pursued different methods of job search. No single approach emerged as the most successful. Job search modes did not vary for different groups and different jobs. Four activities were most likely to lead to job offers: persons checking where they had worked before, asking a friend, answering an ad, and following up a vocational rehabilitation lead. These findings were not conclusive because small numbers of persons engaged in these activities. Thirty percent of DI workers returned to their preentitlement employer. The beneficiaries' first postentitlement jobs had less exertion, fewer hours, and lower pay than did their job held prior to award. The likelihood of working was the same across a broad range of disabling health conditions. In terms of work return policy, formal work return programs aimed at young beneficiaries and those with higher levels of educational attainment would produce the greatest number of job placements. It appears that no targeting of programs is necessary along gender lines. The anomalous finding of an absence of the relationship between improvement in health and labor-force reentry requires further investigation. Any followup in this area of inquiry should plan to have the data collected close to the time of postentitlement job entry.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2000

Changes in womens' roles: impact on and social policy implications for the mental health of women and children.

In recent years. womens' roles have changed dramatically, prompting researchers to examine the impact of these changes on the development of women and children. In this article, we examine three major changes that women have experienced over the past several decades: increased participation in the paid labor force, changes in domestic labor and child-care patterns, and increased numbers of female-headed single-parent families. For each, we first describe the nature of the changes that have occurred over the last 50 years. We then review research concerning the effects of these changes on the development of women and children. Finally, we discuss the implications for social policy that stem from this research. It is broadly concluded that research informed by a developmental-contextual perspective may contribute importantly to the development of social policies focused on promoting the well-being of women and children.

Child↗
PubMed1991

Low-back injuries in a heavy industry. II. Labor market forces.

Trends in rates of low-back strains, low-back impact injuries, and non-low-back injuries among field employees of a petroleum drilling company, 1979-1985, were examined to investigate the relationship between economic factors and the incidence of low-back and other injuries. Economic indicators included the rate of resignations, a surrogate for turnover, and the rate of layoffs. Only lost-time low-back strain rates increased during times of worker layoffs. Non-low-back injury rates were highest during periods of high turnover and no layoffs. Although the increasing age of the work force and the anxiety generated by an industry-wide depression may have played a role, it is likely that the increase in lost-time low-back strain injuries was a worker response to possible layoff.

Accidental Falls↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Why is there state variation in employer-sponsored insurance?

Using the National Survey of America's Families in 1997 and 1999, we investigate the sources of variation in employer-sponsored health insurance across states. We find that demographics and family characteristics (such as race/ethnicity and citizenship status), individual employment characteristics (such as firm size and labor-force attachment), and local labor market characteristics (such as unionization) consistently explain the relative position of all of the states with either high or low rates of employer coverage. Income plays a smaller role in explaining the state variation but is still an important determinant, especially among states whose average income is far from the national average.

Adult↗
PubMed1976

A descriptive method for automatically analysing uterine forces during labor.

In recent years many authors have considered evaluation of uterine contractility by means of analysis of amniotic fluid pressure variations. The reason for this is the introduction in obstetrical management of equipment for the recording of amniotic fluid pressure variations which is a powerful facility for clinical investigation, particularly, if it is considered that previous research has been based upon clinical evaluations and measurements carried out by extra and intra-uterine manometers. Important results of these studies are the definitions of two labor indices, the Montevideo unit (defined as the sum of the maxima of the pressure signal of all uterine contractions during a time interval of ten minutes) and the Alexandria unit (which also takes into account the duration of the contraction:this unit corresponds to the Montevideo unit multiplied by the mean value of the duration of the considered contractions). It is very difficult, however, in fact almost impossible, to summarize the evaluation of labor as the only indes. Many parameters which characterize the shape, frequency and tone of contraction patterns, may be themselves important and could indicated the presence of pathological elements. At present it is not well known which parameters are useful. Since many different sets of parameters can be chosen to characterize the signal, the first point is to determine which is more important clinically. The aim of this paper is to study a procedure of intrauterine pressure signal analysis, which allows the description of uterine contraction by a set of parameters that is interesting for research purposes during labor and suitable for continuous monitoring. The set of parameters was chosen in order to repeat quantitatively the qualitative analysis which a physician can make by a simple inspection of the pressure signal oscillogram. Visual examination of the tocograph results is a clumsy means for evaluating labor performed by an experienced physician. It may appear that the pressure starts "suddenly" (or not) to increase and rises "quickly" (or "slowly"), then it maintains "high" (or "low") mean values for a "long" (or "short") time, with "smooth" (or "irregular") behaviour, then it decreases "quickly" (or slowly, until "suddenly" (or "smoothly") it reaches its basal level, whd the beginning of another uterine contraction is "long" (or "short", during this time the pressure is "almost" constant (or has a "drift" and/or presents "many irregularities"). Therefore the 25 chosen parameters replace quantitatively the above qualitative evaluations. These parameters are not put forward to indicate directly the presence of pathological facttor, but summarize all the interesting clinical aspects of the contraction waveform for research and monitoring purposes. The parameters are extracted using a pattern recognition algorithm based on a structural representation of the contraction (Tables I, II, V)...

Computers↗