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Public health policy and practice
Employment security and health
  1. P Virtanen1,
  2. J Vahtera2,
  3. M Kivimäki2,3,
  4. J Pentti2,
  5. J Ferrie4
  1. 1University of Tampere, Medical School, Finland
  2. 2Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, Finland
  3. 3University of Helsinki, Department of Psychology, Finland
  4. 4University College London, Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, London, UK
  1. Correspondence to:
 Dr P Virtanen, Medical School FIN-33014 University of Tampere, Finland;
 pekka.j.virtanen{at}uta.fi

Abstract

Objective: To study the relation of contractual and perceived employment security to employee health.

Design: Cross sectional survey.

Setting: Municipal sector employees in eight Finnish towns.

Participants: 5981 employees with a permanent contract and 2786 employees with a non-permanent contract (2194 fixed term contract, 682 government subsidised contract).

Outcome measures: Poor self rated health, chronic disease, and psychological distress.

Results: Compared with permanent employees, fixed term men and women had better self rated health (men odds ratio 0.70; 95% confidence intervals 0.50 to 0.98, women 0.70 (0.60 to 0.82) and less chronic disease (men 0.69; 0.52 to 0.91; women 0.89; 0.79 to 1.02), but women had more psychological distress (1.26; 1.09 to 1.45). The only difference between subsidised employees and permanent employees was the high level of psychological distress in women (1.35; 1.09 to 1.68). Low perceived employment security was associated with poor health across all three indicators. The association of low perceived security with psychological distress was significantly stronger in permanent employees than among fixed term and subsidised employees, indicating that perceived security is more important for mental health among employees with a permanent contract.

Conclusions: Contractual security and perceived security of employment are differently associated with health. It is therefore important to distinguish between these aspects of employment security in studies of labour market status and health. Such studies will also need to control for health selection, which is unlikely to operate in the same way among permanent and non-permanent employees.

  • employment

https://doi.org/10.1136/jech.56.8.569

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    Footnotes

    • Funding: the work was supported by the Finnish Work Environment Fund, the Academy of Finland (project no 44968 and no 77560), The Finnish Local Government Pensions Institution, Finnish Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the participating towns of Naantali, Nokia, Oulu, Raisio, Turku, Valkeakoski, Vantaa and Virrat. Jane Ferrie was supported by the Economic and Social Research Council (L 128 25 1046) during the preparation of this work.

    • Conflicts of interest: none.

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