Non-standard employment and mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic in Spain: a qualitative study

Background

The COVID-19 pandemic entailed a deep economic crisis that affected working populations globally. However, non-standard workers (NSW, understood as workers with temporary contracts, not working full-time, self-employed or not paying taxes/making active pension contributions) were more severely hit than workers with more stable and protected jobs. The aim of this study thus was to explore the experiences of NSW during the pandemic and how these affected their mental health in Spain, one of the countries in Europe with the highest shares of temporary and self-employment and the one that applied the most restrictive containment measures during the first waves of the pandemic.

Methods

As part of a larger multi-country study, 41 semi-structured interviews with NSW aged 25-55 were conducted between March-July 2021 and analyzed thematically.

Results

Analyses revealed that job loss or insecurity and subsequent reductions in income were central to the experience of NSW during the pandemic in Spain, which affected their mental health negatively. Both the existing social protection framework and the policies deployed during the pandemic to outweigh these consequences were perceived by NSW as insufficient or could not access them due to their condition of NSW. This was particularly the case for self-employed and temporary agency workers. Moreover, NSW expressed that containment measures and reductions in income prevented them from engaging in activities to cope with such adversities, aggravating their mental health.

Conclusions

These findings suggest that, in Spain, the pandemic intensified but also made more visible the defenselessness of NSW (especially self-employed and temporary agency workers) in terms of social protection in the event of sudden unemployment or reductions in income. This situation had harmful consequences for their mental health. Yet, new policies and measures fall short in fitting the necessities of an increasing share of the workforce.

Key messages

• In Spain, non-standard workers are more vulnerable to and defenseless against sudden unemployment or reductions in income.

• The pandemic intensified this problem and put them at higher risk of suffering from poor mental health.

Study of tocopherol content and its potential antioxidant activity in commercial lipid emulsions for parenteral nutrition

The objective of this study was to determine the content and evaluate the potential antioxidant effect of tocopherols in commercially available lipid emulsions, using a simple validated method adequate for further routine use. During the study, variability between manufacturers as well as between three non-consecutive batches of the same emulsion was observed. Furthermore, addition of α-tocopherol to lipid emulsions as excipient yields more stable emulsions and potentially a beneficial clinical effect. It was concluded that the variation of the tocopherol content between batches implies the importance of control and specification of tocopherol content by the manufacturers.