Public Health
Volume 163, 2018, Pages 27-34

Assessing the influence of working hours on general health by migrant status and family structure: the case of Ecuadorian-, Colombian-, and Spanish-born workers in Spain (Article)

Cayuela A.* , Martínez J.M. , Ronda E. , Delclos G.L. , Conway S.
  • a Department of Community Nursing, Preventive Medicine and Public Health, History of Science, University of Alicante, Alicante, Spain, Public Health Research Group, University of Alicante, Alicante, Spain
  • b Servicio de Investigación y Análisis IT/EP, MC Mutual, Barcelona, Spain
  • c Department of Community Nursing, Preventive Medicine and Public Health, History of Science, University of Alicante, Alicante, Spain, Public Health Research Group, University of Alicante, Alicante, Spain, Center for Research in Occupational Health (CiSAL), Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain, Center for Biomedical Network Research on Epidemiology and Public Health (CIBERESP), Madrid, Spain
  • d Center for Research in Occupational Health (CiSAL), Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain, Center for Biomedical Network Research on Epidemiology and Public Health (CIBERESP), Madrid, Spain, Department of Epidemiology, Human Genetics and Environmental Sciences, School of Public Health, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, TX, United States
  • e Department of Epidemiology, Human Genetics and Environmental Sciences, School of Public Health, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, TX, United States

Abstract

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to analyze the relationship between working hours (WHs) and the likelihood of poor self-reported general health (SRGH) in the first data wave from a cohort of immigrant and native workers in Spain. Study design: Cross-sectional analyses from a prospective cohort study. Methods: Data were drawn from the first wave of the Platform of Longitudinal Studies on Immigrant Families. The selected sample was composed of 217 immigrant workers and 89 native-born workers. We explored differences by immigrant status and family structure, assessing prevalences and Poisson regression models; an additional analysis explored statistically optimized work hour cut points. Results: Highest prevalence of poor SRGH (72.7%) was reported by immigrant, single-parent workers working >40 WH/week. Immigrant single-parent families were more likely to report poor SRGH for three WH categories: ≤20 WH/week (prevalence ratio [PR] = 3.3, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.6–7.2), >30-≤40 WH/week (PR = 2.8, 95% CI 1.3–6.4), and >40 WH/week (PR = 4.2, 95% CI 1.8–10.1). In two-parent families, immigrants working standard hours (i.e. >30-≤40) and native-born workers in the highest and lowest categories of WHs (i.e. ≤20 and >40) had similar PRs for poor SRGH compared with native-born workers working standard hours. Findings suggested that native-born workers residing in two-parent families were able to work more than 10 h longer per week than immigrant workers before reporting equivalent prevalences of poor SRGH. Conclusions: Differences in the association of WHs and poor SRGH among immigrants in Spain seem to be explained by family structure, which suggests that the influence of WHs on health differentially affects vulnerable groups, such as immigrant workers residing in single-parent families. © 2018 The Royal Society for Public Health

Author Keywords

Working Hours Self-reported health occupational health Immigrant workers Family

Index Keywords

family structure prospective study immigrant Ecuador longitudinal study regression analysis indigenous people Prospective Studies human middle aged statistics and numerical data controlled study time factor health status Time Factors Aged Colombia ethnology family size Family Characteristics Cross-Sectional Studies Young Adult cross-sectional study migrant Humans worker Adolescent male working conditions Emigrants and Immigrants Spain occupational exposure female prevalence Article disease prevalence adult single parent cohort analysis occupational health employment public health immigrant population
Link
https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85050525109&doi=10.1016%2fj.puhe.2018.06.013&partnerID=40&md5=e607add15ab8e84d2c8e438411499d4d
DOI: 10.1016/j.puhe.2018.06.013
ISSN: 00333506
Cited by: 1
Original Language: English