Authors: Ana Bernarda Ludermir Glyn Lewis
Publish Date: 2005/08/16
Volume: 40, Issue: 8, Pages: 622-627
Abstract
Economic activity in Brazilian women has been increasing in recent years particularly in the form of under and selfemployment which allows more flexibility in the work schedule and facilitates parttime work a crucial issue for women reconciling family duties and the need for a remunerated occupation This paper investigates the gender difference in the association between employment status and common mental disorders CMD A crosssectional survey of a random sample of private households included 683 adults aged 15 years and over living in Olinda Brazil The selfreporting questionnaire SRQ20 was used to estimate the prevalence of CMD The association between unemployment and CMD for men OR=177 95 CI 08–39 was in the same direction as that found for women OR=266 95 CI 11–63 but not significant In contrast to this while women working in the informal sector were more likely to be a case of CMD than formal workers OR=302 95 CI 13–72 no difference was found for informally working men OR=108 95 CI 05–24 The estimated OR for female informal workers was out of the 95 confidence intervals of the corresponding OR estimated for males and the test for interaction was statistically significant p=004 From a policy perspective the value of encouraging people to take informal work depends both on how quickly individuals can be moved out of unemployment into informal work compared to other destinations and how well individuals fare once in informal work The results of the present study suggest that working outside the protection of employment legislation and with limited opportunity for skill use may be a risk for women’s mental health
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