Sociopolitical values and social institutions: Studying work and health equity through the lens of political economy

SSM: Population Health

Fernando G. Benavides¹  Emily Q. Ahonen²  David Gimeno Ruiz de Porras³  Kaori Fujishiro⁴  I-Chen Chen⁵ 

[1] Center for Research in Occupational Health, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, CIBER of Epidemiology and Public Health (CIBERESP) and IMIM – Parc Salut Mar, Barcelona, Spain;Corresponding author. NIOSH, MS R-151090 Tusculum Avenue, Cincinnati, OH45226, USA..;Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, Indianapolis, IN, USA;Division of Field Studies and Engineering, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Cincinnati, OH, USA;Southwest Center for Occupational and Environmental Health, Department of Epidemiology, Human Genetics and Environmental Sciences, School of Public Health in San Antonio, The University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston, San Antonio, TX, USA;

关键词: United States;    European union;    Occupational safety and health;    Social determinants of health;    Political economy;    Welfare regime;   

DOI  :  

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Work contributes to health and health inequity in complex ways. The traditional exposure-disease framework used in occupational health research is not equipped to address societal contexts in which work is embedded. The political economy approach to public health directly examines macro-level societal contexts, but the attention to work in this literature is mostly on unemployment. As a result, we have limited understanding of work as a social determinant of health and health inequity. To fill this gap, we propose a conceptual framework that facilitates research on work, health, and health equity in institutional contexts. As an illustration of different social institutions creating different work-related health, we present characteristics of work and health in the United States and the European Union using the 2015 Working Conditions Surveys data. The results also highlight limitations of the traditional exposure-disease approach used in occupational health research. Applying the proposed framework, we discuss how work and health could be investigated from a broader perspective that involves multiple social institutions and the sociopolitical values that underpin them. Such investigations would inform policy interventions that are congruent with existing social institutions and thus have the potential for being adopted and effective. Further, we clarify the role of research in generating knowledge that would contribute to institutional change in support of population health and health equity.

【 授权许可】

Unknown