El rápido crecimiento de las desigualdades socieconómicas en salud: el efecto del legado

Social inequalities in health: duration of unemployment unevenly effects on the health of men and women

Background

Employment status is an important determinant of health inequalities. The aim of this article is to analyze the association between duration of unemployment and the presence of cardiovascular risk factors, self-perception of health and presence of depression and anxiety, assessing differences in the effects of unemployment by sex and age.

Methods

The sample was composed of 12 123 people (52.4% men), 18 to 74 years old (mean age= 43.5 years, SD = 10.4). Logistic regression analyses were used to study the influence of duration of unemployment on health (‘0 days’, ‘≤11 months’ and ‘≥12 months’). Sex, age, level of education, employment status and time spent unemployed, as well as tobacco and alcohol use and physical activity, were considered. Morbidity variables were hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, diabetes, obesity, depression and anxiety, and a subjective health assessment.

Results

The results showed both unemployed men and women had worse outcome in health compared with their active counterparts. The risk of hypertension was presented in long-term unemployed men, which had 1.3 times more likely to suffer from hypertension. The risk of obesity was presented only in unemployed women, which had 1.5 times more risk of obesity, doubling the risk (OR= 2.2) among women under age 40. The unemployment had a protective effect against anxiety among younger women (OR = 0.53)

Conclusion

It has been observed a different influence of unemployment time on men and women’s health. The employment status should be considered in public health policy agendas with the purpose of reducing inequalities in health.

Socioeconomic Status in Adolescents: A Study of Its Relationship with Overweight and Obesity and Influence on Social Network Configuration

Socioeconomic status (SES) influences all the determinants of health, conditioning health throughout life. The aim of the present study was to explore the relationship between socioeconomic status and obesity in adolescence through an analysis of the patterns of contact between peers as a function of this parameter. A cross-sectional study was performed, analyzing a sample of 235 students aged 14 to 18 and 11 class networks. Social network analysis was used to analyze structural variables of centrality from a sociocentric perspective. We found that adolescents with a medium-low SES presented a two-fold higher probability of being overweight, but we did not detect any differences in the configuration of their social networks when compared with those of normal-weight adolescents. However, we did find significant differences in the formation of networks according to SES in the overall sample and disaggregated by gender, whereby adolescents with a high SES in general presented a higher capacity to form wider social networks. Elucidating the relationship between SES and overweight and its influence on social network formation can contribute to the design of preventative strategies against overweight and obesity in adolescents, since their social environment can provide them with several resources to combat excess weight.