Home-based outsourced informal work by children and adolescents impacts sleep and leisure—a preliminary study

Abstract

Child labor is a serious and controversial issue. Despite governments establishing health policies prohibiting or restricting the age of entry to the job market, there is still a large number of working children and adolescents worldwide, particularly informal workers. This study aimed to evaluate the living and working conditions of adolescents. Work activities were home-based involving the production of jewelry and fashion jewelry, in a Brazilian city, Limeira, São Paulo. Participants were 11–17-year-old workers and non-workers, who answered a comprehensive questionnaire on their living and working conditions and filled out a time-budget protocol for 10 consecutive days. Both instruments were applied twice during both school and vacation terms. Chi-square/Fisher and Student’s t tests were used, and Bonferroni corrections were performed in the significance levels of the statistical methods. During school time, working children/adolescents had lower mean sleep duration (p < 0.01) than non-working ones. During vacation, non-working youths enjoyed longer leisure time (p < 0.04). Comparing school and vacation times, working youths showed no significant difference in daily routine (p > 0.05), while non-workers spent more time on leisure activities during the vacation period (p = 0.005). In summary, this study found that working at home had a deleterious effect on the sleep and leisure of the youths studied. These data should be considered as an exposome component (specific external exposure) in evaluations of long-term health endpoints and their possible causes.