Premium
Work and its role in shaping the social gradient in health
Author(s) -
Clougherty Jane E.,
Souza Kerry,
Cullen Mark R.
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
annals of the new york academy of sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.712
H-Index - 248
eISSN - 1749-6632
pISSN - 0077-8923
DOI - 10.1111/j.1749-6632.2009.05338.x
Subject(s) - psychosocial , stressor , psychology , affect (linguistics) , work (physics) , hazard , disease , social psychology , demographic economics , gerontology , medicine , clinical psychology , economics , psychiatry , mechanical engineering , chemistry , communication , organic chemistry , pathology , engineering
Adults with better jobs enjoy better health: job title was, in fact, the social gradient metric first used to study the relationship between social class and chronic disease etiology, a core finding now replicated in most developed countries. What has been less well proved is whether this correlation is causal , and if so, through what mechanisms. During the past decade, much research has been directed at these issues. Best evidence in 2009 suggests that occupation does affect health. Most recent research on the relationship has been directed at disentangling the pathways through which lower‐status work leads to adverse health outcomes. This review focuses on six areas of recent progress: (1) the role of status in a hierarchical occupational system; (2) the roles of psychosocial job stressors ; (3) effects of workplace physical and chemical hazard exposures ; (4) evidence that work organization matters as a contextual factor; (5) implications for the gradient of new forms of nonstandard or “precarious” employment such as contract and shift work; and (6) emerging evidence that women may be impacted differently by adverse working conditions, and possibly more strongly, than men.