The authors model the relationships between socioeconomic status (SES), working conditions, and changes between ages 54 and 65 in three very different health outcomes. To what extent is SES associated with changes in health net of the working conditions? At the same time, to what extent are working conditions associated with health net of SES? To address these questions the authors use unique data from a single cohort of women and men to model changes in health between ages 54 and 65. Although results vary across outcomes, there are some circumstances in which associations between SES and changes in health are attributable to working conditions, and there are other circumstances in which associations between working conditions and changes in health are attributable to SES. The largely disconnected literatures on health disparities (in the social sciences and public health) and job design (in occupational stress and ergonomics) could and should be fruitfully integrated.
Alder, N.E. and J.M. Ostrove.1999. "Socioeconomic Status and Health: What We Know and What We Don't." Annals of the New York Academy of Science, 396:3-15.
2.
Armstrong, T.J., P. Buckle, L.J. Fine, M. Hagberg, B. Jonsson, A. Kilbom, I.A.A. Kuorinka, B.A. Silverstein, G. Sjogaard, and E.R.A. Viikari-Juntura .1993. "A Conceptual Model for Work-Related Neck and Upper-Limp Musculoskeletal Disorders." Scandinavian Journal of Work and Environmental Health19:73-84.
3.
Borg, V. and T.S. Kristensen .2000. "Social Class and Self-Rated Health: Can the Gradient Be Explained by Differences in Life Style or Work Environment?" Social Science and Medicine51:1019-30.
4.
Brand, J., J.R. Warren, P. Hoonakker, and P. Carayon.2007. "Do Job Characteristics Mediate the Relationship Between SES and Health? Evidence From Sibling Models." Social Science Research36:222-53.
5.
Brekke, M., P. Hjortdahl, and T. Kvien.2002. "Severity of Musculoskeletal Pain: Relations to Socioeconomic Inequality." Social Science and Medicine54:221-28.
6.
Bruce, M.L., D.T. Takeuchi, and P.J. Leaf.1991. "Poverty and Psychiatric Status." Archives of General Psychiatry48:470-4.
7.
Carayon, P. and M.J. Smith.2000. "Work Organization and Ergonomics." Applied Ergonomics31:649-62.
8.
Carayon, P., M.J. Smith, and M.C. Haims.1999. "Work organization, Job Stress, and Work-Related Musculoskeletal Disorders." Human Factors41 (4): 644-63.
9.
Chandola, T., M. Bartley, A. Sacker, C. Jenkinson, and M. Marmot.2002. "Health Selection in the Whitehall II Study, UK." Social Science and Medicine56:2059-72 .
10.
Cooper, C.L., and A. Cox.1985. "Occupational Stress Among Word Process Operators." Stress Medicine1:87-92.
11.
Cooper, C.L., and J. Marshall.1976. "Occupational Sources: A Review of the Literature Relating to Coronary Heart Disease and Mental Ill Health." Journal of Occupational Health Psychology49:11-28.
12.
Dionne, C., M. Von Korff, T. Koepsell, R. Deyo, W. Barlow, and H. Checkoway.2001. "Formal Education and Back Pain: A Review ." Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health55:455-68.
13.
Dohrenwend, B.P., I. Levav, P.E. Shrout, S. Schwartz, G. Naveh, B.G. Link, A.E. Skodol, and A. Stueve.1992. "Socioeconomic Status and Psychiatric Disorders: The Causation-Selection Issue." Science255:946-52.
14.
Goodman, E.1999. "The Role of Socioeconomic Status Gradients in Explaining Differences in US Adolescents' Health." American Journal of Public Health89:1522-28.
15.
Hagberg, M., H. Morgenstern, and M. Kelsh.1992. "Impact of Occupations and Job Tasks on the Prevalence of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome." Scandinavian Journal of Work Environment and Health18: 337-45.
16.
Hauser, R.M. and J.R. Warren.1997. "Socioeconomic Indexes of Occupational Status: A Review, Update, and Critique." Pp. 177-298 in Sociological Methodology 1997, edited by A. Raftery.Cambridge: Blackwell.
17.
Heckman, J.1979. "Sample Selection Bias as a Specification Error." Econometrica47:153-61.
18.
House, J.H.2002. "Understanding Social Factors and Inequalities in Health: 20th Century Progress and 21st Century Prospects." Journal of Health and Social Behavior43:125-42.
19.
Idler, E.L. and Y. Benyamini.1997. "Self-Rated Health and Mortality: A Review of Twenty-Seven Community Studies." Journal of Health and Social Behaviour38:21-37.
20.
Jarvis, E.1855. Insanity and Idiocy inMassachusetts : Report of the Commission on Lunacy Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
21.
Jencks, C.S., L. Perman, and L. Rainwater.1988. "What Is a Good Job? A New Measure of Labor Market Success." American Journal of Sociology93 (6): 1322-57.
22.
Jensen, C., C.U. Ryholt, H. Burr, E. Villadsen, and H. Christensen.2002. "Work-Related Psychosocial, Physical, and Individual Factors Associated With Musculoskeletal Symptoms in Computer Users." Work and Stress16:107-20.
23.
Karasek, R.A.1979. "Job Demands, Decision Latitude, and Mental Strain: Implications for Job Design." Administrative Science Quarterly24:285-308.
24.
Link, B.G., M.C. Lennon, and B.P. Dohrenwend .1993. "Socioeconomic Status and Depression: The Role of Occupations Involving Direction, Control, and Planning ." American Journal of Sociology98:1351-87.
25.
Link, B.G. and J.C. Phelan.1995. "Social Conditions As Fundamental Causes of Disease." Journal of Health and Social Behavior35:80-94.
26.
Linton, S.J.2000. "A Review of Psychosocial Risk Factors in Back and Neck Pain." Spine25:1148-56.
27.
Lund, T. and V. Borg, V.1999. "Work Environment and Self-Rated Health as Predictors of Remaining in Work 5 Years Later Among Danish Employees 35-59 Years of Age ." Experimental Aging Research25:429-34.
28.
Lutfey, K. and J. Freese.2005. "Toward Some Fundamentals of Fundamental Causality: Socioeconomic Status and Health in the Routine Clinic Visit for Diabetes." American Journal of Sociology110:1326-72.
29.
Marmot, M., M. Shipley, E. Brunner, and H. Hemingway.2001. "Relative Contribution of Early Life and Adult Socioeconomic Factors to Adult Morbidity in the Whitehall II Study ." Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health55:301-7.
30.
Marmot, M.G., H. Bosma, H. Hemingway, E. Brunner, and S. Stansfeld.1997. "Contribution of Job Control and Other Risk Factors to Social Variations in Coronary Heart Disease Incidence." Lancet350:235-9.
31.
Marmot, M.G., C.D. Ryff, L.L. Bumpass, M. Shipley, and N. Marks.1997. "Social Inequalities in Health: Next Questions and Converging Evidence." Social Science and Medicine44:901-10.
32.
Martikainen, P., S. Stansfeld, H. Hemingway, and M. Marmot.1999. "Determinants of Socioeconomic Differences in Change in Physical and Mental Functioning." Social Science and Medicine49 (4): 499-507.
33.
Michie, S. and S. Williams.2003. "Reducing Work Related Psychological Ill Health and Sickness Absence: A Systematic Literature Review." Occupational and Environmental Medicine60:3-9.
34.
Miech, R.A., A. Caspi, T. Moffitt, B.R.E. Wright, and P.A. Silva.1999. "Low Socioeconomic Status and Mental Disorders: A Longitudinal Study of Selection and Causation During Young Adulthood ." American Journal of Sociology104:1096-131.
35.
Miech, R.A. and R.M. Hauser.2001. "Socioeconomic Status (SES) and Health at Midlife: A Comparison of Educational Attainment With Occupation-Based Indicators ." Annals of Epidemiology11:75-84.
36.
Mossey, J.M. and E. Shapiro.1982. "Self-Rated Health: A Predictor of Mortality Among the Elderly." American Journal of Public Health72:800-8.
37.
Niedhammer, I., M. Goldberg, A. Leclerc, I. Bugel, and S. David.1998. "Psychosocial Factors at Work and Subsequent Depressive Symptoms in the Gazel Cohort." Scandinavian Journal of Work Environment and Health24:197-205.
38.
Power, C., J. Frank, C. Hertzman, G. Schierhout, and L. Li.2001. "Predictors of Low Back Pain Onset in a Prospective British Study." American Journal of Public Health91:1671-78.
39.
Power, C., S. Matthews, and O. Manor.1996. "Inequalities in Self Rated Health in the 1958 Birth Cohort: Lifetime Social Circumstances or Social Mobility?" British Medical Journal313:449-53.
40.
Putz-Anderson, V.1988. Cumulative Trauma Disorders-A Manual for Musculoskeletal Disease of the Upper Limbs. London: Taylor and Francis.
41.
Sewell, W.H. and R.M. Hauser.1975. Education, Occupation, and Earnings: Achievement in the Early Career. New York: Academic Press
42.
Smith, M.J.1987. "Mental and Physical Strain at VDT Workstations." Behaviour and Information Technology6 (3): 243-55.
43.
Smith, M.J. and P. Carayon-Sainfort .1989. "A Balance Theory of Job Design for Stress Reduction." International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics4:67-79.
44.
Vahtera, J., P. Virtanen, M. Kivimaki, and J. Pentti.1999. "Workplace as an Origin of Health Inequalities ." Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health53:399-407.
45.
Warren, J.R., P.L.T. Hoonakker, P. Carayon, and J. Brand.2004. "Job Characteristics as Mediators in SES-Health Relationships." Social Science and Medicine59:1367-78.
46.
Wheaton, B.1978. "The Sociogenesis of Psychological Disorder: Reexamining the Causal Issues With Longitudinal Data." American Sociological Review43:383-403.
47.
Wilson, S.E.2001. "Socioeconomic Status and the Prevalence of Health Problems Among Married Couples in Late Midlife." American Journal of Public Health91 (1): 131-5.
