[Types of employment and health: analysis of the Second European Survey on Working Conditions].
OBJECTIVE
To investigate the relationships among types of employment and several health self-perceived outcomes in a sample of active workers from the 15 state members of the European Union.


METHODS
Cross-sectional study with data drawn from the Second European Survey on Working Conditions (n = 15,146 individuals). The predictive variable was the types of employment aggregated in: permanent workers, sole traders, small employers (less than 10 employees) and temporary workers (full-and part-time). Unconditional logistic regression models were adjusted by age, gender and several indications of working conditions. Permanent workers was used as the baseline category.


RESULTS
Employees with permanent (69,3%) and temporary (12,5%) contracts notified the highest level of a job absenteeism while temporary employees reported the highest level of job dissatisfaction. On the other hand, sole traders (12,2%) and small employees (6.1%) notified the most frequent level of overall fatigue, backache and muscular pains. Having permanent workers as baseline category, temporary employees was associated with high dissatisfaction (OR = 1.68), and and overall fatigue (OR = 1.16), but with lower frequency of stress (OR = 0.74) and job absenteeism (OR = 0.87). Small employers showed a low frequency of absenteeism (OR = 0.68), but a high stress (OR = 1.77) and overall fatigue (OR = 1.27). Finally, sole traders reported more frequently overall fatigue (OR = 1.40), and stress (OR = 1.33), but less job absenteeism (OR = 0.58).


CONCLUSIONS
These findings suggest that types of employment may have an independent effect on several health self-perceive outcomes. Further research is necessary to overcome various shortcoming of this study, and to assess the role either job security or level of income and social protection.
Benavides
F
F
Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, 08003, España. fernando. benavides@cexs.upf.es
Benach
J
J
D000041:Absenteeism; D001416:Back Pain / Q000209:etiology*; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003625:Data Collection; D004651:Employment; D005062:European Union; D005221:Fatigue / Q000209:etiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007588:Job Satisfaction; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D009784:Occupational Diseases / Q000209:etiology*; D013312:Stress, Physiological / Q000209:etiology*