Health on equal terms? : Is labor market status associated with tobacco use and risk consumption of alcohol?

Background: Identifying associations of being within or currently out of the labor force in relation to health risk behaviors are important in terms of planning and monitoring health preventive measures. This master thesis aims to investigate whether there is an association between labor market status, as in being within- or currently outside the labor force, in relation to daily smoking and alcohol risk consumption. Methodology: Data from the cross-sectional Health on Equal Terms survey and Life & Health survey in Uppsala county council from individuals aged 16-65 were used (n=4 666). Data was retrieved from 2012. Binary logistic regression analysis was conducted to investigate the association between labor market status with alcohol consumption and tobacco use, controlling for possible confounding factors. Results: The unadjusted analysis using daily smoker as the dependent variable indicated that those being currently out of the labor force had higher odds of being a daily smoker (OR 1.91, 95 % CI 1.52-2.39) compared to those within the labor force. This was still significant when controlling for demographic factors and economic situation (OR 1.38, 95 % CI 1.07-1.79, p=0.013), but not significant when controlling for self-rated health (OR 1.28, 95 % CI 0.97-1.70, p=0.075). For alcohol, the unadjusted analysis indicated that those being currently outside the labor force had lower odds of having risk consumption (OR 0.54, 95 % CI 0.44-0.66). This was highly significant even after adjusting for the all confounding factors (OR 0.55, 95 % CI 0.43-0.69, p=0.000) Conclusion: The findings suggest that there is an association between being outside the labor force and higher odds of daily smoking and a lower consumption of alcohol, when compared to being in the labor force. These findings address the need for health preventive measures aimed at institutions involving those outside the labor force, and at workplaces. Studies using longitudinal design should be conducted to investigate this relationship further