Summary: Nonstandard work schedules in early life correlate with poorer health outcomes in middle age. Using data from the 1979 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, the study examined over 30 years of employment patterns and their effects on sleep quality, physical and mental health up to age 50.
The findings show that those who move from stable standard work hours to more variable schedules experience significant harm to health, with marked differences across racial and gender lines. This study highlights the long-term health risks associated with irregular work schedules and highlights the need for fairer working conditions.
Key facts:
- Individuals with variable work hours reported poorer sleep, more depressive symptoms, and poorer overall health at age 50 than those with standard work hours.
- Moving from stable standard hours to variable schedules had an impact on health comparable to having less than a high school education.
- There were significant racial and gender disparities, with black Americans and those in vulnerable social positions more adversely affected by nonstandard work schedules.
source: PLANE
The hours you work earlier in life may be linked to poorer health years later, according to a study published April 3, 2024 in the open access journal PLUS ONE by Wen-Jui Han from New York University, USA.
Studies have consistently shown that non-standard work schedules – working outside the traditional nine-to-five working day – can negatively affect physical and mental health, as well as social and family life.
The current study uses a lifetime approach to provide a longer-term perspective on how work schedule patterns throughout an individual’s working life affect their health in midlife.
Hahn used data from The National Longitudinal Survey of Youth-1979 (NLSY79), which included data on more than 7,000 people in the U.S. over 30 years, to see if employment patterns at a younger age were related to sleep, physical health and mental health at age 50.
Hahn found that about a quarter of participants (26%) worked stable standard hours, and another third (35%) worked mostly standard hours. 17 percent initially worked standard hours in their 20s and later switched to flexible working patterns – a combination of evening, night and flexible working hours. 12 percent initially worked standard hours and then switched to flexible hours. The last ten percent barely worked during this period.
Compared to people who worked mostly traditional daytime hours throughout their working careers, those whose careers included more variable work schedules slept less, had lower sleep quality, and were tend to report depressive symptoms at age 50.
The most impressive results were seen in those who had stable work hours in their 20s and then switched to more variable work hours in their 30s. This effect size is significant and similar to that for education only below high school.
Hahn also found racial and gender-related trends. For example, black Americans are more likely to have variable work schedules associated with poorer health, highlighting how some groups may disproportionately bear the adverse consequences of such employment patterns.
Hahn suggests that variable work schedules are linked to poor sleep, physical fatigue, and emotional exhaustion, which can make us vulnerable to unhealthy living.
The study also suggests that the positive and negative effects of work schedules on health can accumulate across the lifespan, while highlighting how employment patterns can contribute to health inequities.
Khan adds: “Work that should bring resources to help us maintain a dignified life has now become a vulnerability to a healthy life due to the increasing insecurity of our working conditions in this increasingly unequal society. People in vulnerable social positions (eg, women, blacks, low education) disproportionately bear these health consequences.
About this aging and health research news
Author: Hannah Abdullah
source: PLANE
Contact: Hanna Abdallah – PLOS
Image: Image credited to Neuroscience News
Original research: Free access.
“How Our Longitudinal Patterns of Employment May Shape Our Health as We Approach Middle Adulthood – The US NLSY79 Cohort” by Wen-Jui Han et al. PLUS ONE
Summary
How our longitudinal patterns of employment may shape our health as we approach middle adulthood – the US NLSY79 cohort
Recent labor market transformations driven by digital and technological advances, together with the rise of the service economy since the 1980s, have exposed more workers to precarious conditions, such as irregular working hours and low or unpredictable wages, threatening the economic their well-being and health.
This study advances our understanding of the critical role that employment plays in our health by examining how patterns of employment throughout our working lives, based on work schedules, may shape our health at age 50, paying particular attention to moderating role of social status.
The National Longitudinal Survey of Youth-1979 (NLSY79), which collected 30+ years of longitudinal information, was used to examine how employment patterns beginning at age 22 (n ≈ 7336) might be related to hours and sleep quality, physical and mental function, and the likelihood of reporting poor health and depressive symptoms at age 50.
Sequence analysis found five dominant patterns of employment between 22 and 49 years old: “mostly unemployed” (10%), “early standard hours before switching to mostly variable hours” (12%), “early standard hours before switching to variable schedules (early ST-unstable, 17%), “mostly standard hours with some variable hours” (35%), and “stable standard hours” (26%).
Multiple regression analyzes showed that the presence of an “early ST-unstable” schedule pattern between ages 22 and 49 was consistently, significantly associated with the worst health, including the fewest hours of sleep per day, the lowest sleep quality, the most -low physical and mental functioning and highest likelihood of reporting poor health and depressive symptoms at age 50.
In addition, social status plays a significant role in these adverse health effects. For example, while non-Hispanic white women reported the most hours of sleep and non-Hispanic men reported the fewest, the opposite was true for sleep quality.
Additionally, non-Hispanic black men with less than a high school education were most likely to report poor health at age 50 if they engaged in an “early ST-unstable” employment pattern between 22 and 49 years old. In comparison, non-Hispanic white men with a college or higher education were least likely to report poor health if they participated in an employment pattern with stable standard work hours.
This analysis highlights the critical role of employment patterns in shaping our daily lives, which have implications for sleep and physical and mental health as we approach middle adulthood.
It should be noted that relatively disadvantaged groups are also likely to be subject to substandard work schedules, including non-Hispanic blacks and people with low education; therefore, they were more likely than others to assume the harmful links between nonstandard work schedules and sleep and health, making them less likely to maintain and maintain their health as they approach middle age.
