The relationship between employment and social participation among Australians with a disabling chronic health condition

Callander, Emily, and Schofield, Deborah J. (2013) The relationship between employment and social participation among Australians with a disabling chronic health condition. BMJ Open, 3 (2013). e002054. pp. 1-5.

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Abstract

Objectives: Social interaction may be particularly important for people with chronic health conditions, due to the numerous benefits to an individual's health. This paper aims to determine if labour force participation is a factor that influences individuals with chronic health conditions partaking in social or cultural events.

Design and setting: The study undertakes a cross-sectional analysis of the 2009 Survey of Disability, Ageing and Carers, a nationally representative survey of the Australian population.

Participants: 33 376 records of persons aged 25–64years.

Outcome measures: Participation in social and community activities.

Results: It was found that after controlling for age, sex, level of highest education, income unit type and severity of disability, people with a chronic health condition that were in the labour force were more than twice as likely to be participating in social or community events (OR 2.54, 95% CI 1.95 to 3.29, p<0.0001), and in cultural events (OR 2.57, 95% CI 2.21 to 3.00, p<0.0001) as their counterparts who were out of the labour force. The results were then repeated, with the addition of income as a confounding variable. People with a chronic health condition that were in the labour force were still a little more than twice as likely to be participating in social or community events (OR 2.25, 95% CI 1.69 to 3.00, p<0.0001), and to be participating in cultural events (OR 2.08, 95% CI 1.76 to 2.45, p<0.0001) as their counterparts who were out of the labour force.

Conclusions: Participating in the labour force may be an important driver of social participation among those with chronic health conditions, independent of income. People with chronic health conditions who are not in the labour force and do not participate in social or cultural activities may have a compounding disadvantage.

Item ID: 41234
Item Type: Article (Research - C1)
ISSN: 2044-6055
Keywords: health economics; labour force particpation; chronic health condition; health expenditure
Additional Information:

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial License, which permits use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non commercial and is otherwise in compliance with the license. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/ and http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/legalcode.

Funders: National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia (NHMRC)
Date Deposited: 11 Nov 2015 03:57
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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