Multiple chronic health conditions and their link with labour force participation and economic status

Schofield, Deborah J., Callander, Emily J., Shrestha, Rupendra N., Passey, Megan E., Percival, Richard, and Kelly, Simon J. (2013) Multiple chronic health conditions and their link with labour force participation and economic status. PLoS ONE, 8 (11). e79108. pp. 1-7.

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Abstract

Aims: To assess the labour force participation and quantify the economic status of older Australian workers with multiple health conditions.

Background: Many older people suffer from multiple health conditions. While multiple morbidities have been highlighted as an important research topic, there has been limited research in this area to date, particularly on the economic status of those with multiple morbidities.

Methods: Cross sectional analysis of Health&WealthMOD, a microsimulation model of Australians aged 45 to 64 years.

Results: People with one chronic health condition had 0.59 times the odds of being employed compared to those with no condition (OR 0.59, 95% CI: 0.49, 0.71), and those with four or more conditions had 0.14 times the odds of being employed compared to those with no condition (OR 0.14, 95% CI: 0.11, 0.18). People with one condition received a weekly income 32% lower than those with no health condition, paid 49 % less tax, and received 37% more in government transfer payments; those with four or more conditions received a weekly income 94% lower, paid 97% less in tax and received over 2,000% more in government transfer payments per week than those with no condition.

Conclusion: While having a chronic health condition is associated with lower labour force participation and poorer economic status, having multiple conditions compounds the affect – with these people being far less likely to be employed and having drastically lower incomes.

Item ID: 41226
Item Type: Article (Research - C1)
ISSN: 1932-6203
Keywords: health economics; co-morbidities; labour force participation
Additional Information:

© 2013 Schofield et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Funders: National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), Australian Research Council (ARC)
Projects and Grants: NHMRC APP1052742, ARC grant LP07749193
Date Deposited: 10 Nov 2015 01:36
FoR Codes: 14 ECONOMICS > 1402 Applied Economics > 140208 Health Economics @ 100%
SEO Codes: 91 ECONOMIC FRAMEWORK > 9102 Microeconomics > 910209 Preference, Behaviour and Welfare @ 50%
92 HEALTH > 9204 Public Health (excl. Specific Population Health) > 920408 Health Status (e.g. Indicators of Well-Being) @ 50%
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