Abstract
Objectives
We examined health selection in the context of transitions across employment statuses (employment, unemployment and inactivity), with attention to gender differences.
Methods
60,536 transitions from 7,901 individuals were pooled from 17 waves of the British Household Panel Survey. Associations between self-rated health and transitions across employment statuses were examined using multilevel multinomial analysis.
Results
Health selective employment transitions between year t-1 and t were observed at entry to as well as exit from employment. Associations for poor health with the transitions were similar for men and women in transitions from employment to both unemployment and to inactivity, but with some differences in other transitions. When leaving employment, transitions from employment to unemployment (ORadjusted(adjusted odds ratio) = 1.51, 95 % CI = 1.21–1.89 for men and ORadjusted = 1.60, 95 % CI = 1.25–2.04 for women) and to inactivity (ORadjusted = 1.58, 95 % CI = 1.21–1.89 for men and ORadjusted = 1.63, 95 % CI = 1.35–1.96 for women) were affected by health status among both men and women. Similarly, poor health lowered the probability of transitions to employment from unemployment and inactivity; however, the negative impact of poor health was statistically significant only for women.
Conclusions
There is a strong relationship between health and transitions both into and out of employment suggesting an independent role for poor health, and these associations were similar for men and women.
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Acknowledgments
The BHPS data were made available through the UK Data Archive. The data were originally collected by the ESRC Research Centre on Micro-social Change within the Institute for Social and Economic Research at the University of Essex. Neither the original collectors of the data nor the archive bear any responsibility for the analyses or interpretations presented here. The authors are grateful to both organizations for allowing access to the data and to all participants in the BHPS survey. This research was supported by Graduate School Research Scholarship and Overseas Research Student Award from University College London awarded to MK.
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Ki, M., Kelly, Y., Sacker, A. et al. Poor health, employment transitions and gender: evidence from the British Household Panel Survey. Int J Public Health 58, 537–546 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00038-012-0437-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00038-012-0437-y