Social Determinants of Health (SDOH) can affect a wide range of health functioning and quality of life outcomes and risks. Work and associated conditions can be one of the key SDOHs.
In addition, other SDOHs such as education, access to healthcare, and the economic status of the family, also have to be taken into consideration. Work being considered as a SDOH, has received attention in the Public Health field especially in the area of Occupational Health.
To provide information on the subject, the Oregon Institute of Occupational Health Sciences https://www.ohsu.edu/pregon-institute-occupational-health-sciences, the Oregon Healthy Workforce Center, OHSU, and Portland State University, conducted the virtual 2020 Fall Symposium, Worker Health: Work as a Social Determinant of Health: Challenges and Opportunities on November 13, 2020.
Keynote speaker, Rada Dagher, PhD, Scientific Program Director at the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) within NIH, discussed why work is an important variable in studying health disparities in the U.S.
Dr. Dagher explained, that there are large disparities in workplace exposures to physical, chemical, biological, mechanical and psychosocial exposures, profound occupational segregation in the U.S labor force, large disparities in access to beneficial work policies and benefits such as health insurance, lack of social support networks, and sometimes structural racism and discrimination can be an important contributor to health disparities occurring at work.
She explained the need for future research is to:
- Use intersectional approaches that need to consider the different identities that shape work experiences and their interactions such as gender, race/ethnicity, social class etc.
- Develop a life course perspective that considers work and health trajectories and transitions over time
- Evaluate the impact of policies and system level trends on the relationship between work and health disparities to inform future interventions
According to Dr. Dagher, there are questions to answer and future research is needed to address:
- Disparities in maternal mortality—Do different working conditions and unequal access to leave benefits contribute to increased maternal mortality among African American women?
- Does occupational segregation and differential patterning of unemployment rates contribute to disparities in Opioid Use Disorders?
- Can the unequal distribution of essential jobs by race/ethnicity and unequal access to job flexibility, contribute to these disparities?
- Can differences in race/ethnicity reflect differential exposure/vulnerability to work stressors and thereby be a mechanism that links work to health disparities?
Dr Dagher summed up by saying, “It is important to understand how SDOHs impact population, health, how work intersects with other SDOHs, how to develop actionable strategies to improve psychosocial working conditions in the workplace, and the need to discuss ways in which organizations can help vulnerable workers improve their health and well-being.”