Informal employment related to health in the European Unión, by M. Julià, G. Tarafa, F.Belvis and J. Benach. Presented at the 7th European Public Health Conference: "Mind the gap: Reducing inequalities in health and health care". Glasgow, 20th to 22nd November 2014.

1. Informal employment related to health in the European Union
M. Julià1, G. Tarafa1,2, F.Belvis1, J. Benach1,2
1 Health Inequalities Reseach Group. Employment Conditions Network (GREDS-EMCONET). Universitat Pompeu Fabra. Barcelona
2 Transdisciplinary Research Group on Socioecological Transitions (GinTRANS2). Universidad Autónoma Madrid, Spain

2. Background, objectives and methods
• Background:
• Objectives:
 Informal employment (IE) scarcely studied in high income countries (our previous study)
 Relationship between IE and health or health inequalities is not studied
 To measure IE in EU-27 countries in 2005 and 2010
 To know social distribution of poor work-related health (PWRH)
 To analyse the association between IE and PWRH
• Methods:
 15-64 aged in the EU-27 from 2005 and 2010 EWCS
 Prevalence of IE and social distribution of PWRH
 Binomial logistic regression model

3. Results I
Prevalence of IE in EU-27 in 2005 and 2010.
Source: own elaboration

4. Results II
2005
2010
Occupational status
n (%)
OR
95% CI
n (%)
OR
95% CI
Men
Formals
Employee
9902 (74,6)
1
13838 (77,9)
1
Self-employed
715 (5,4)
1,43
(1,15-1,78)
912 (5,1)
1,22
(0,99-1,52)
Employer
378 (2,9)
0,61
(0,46-0,82)
406 (2,3)
0,86
(0,63-1,19)
Informals
Self-employed
930 (7,0)
0,99
(0,80-1,21)
1287 (7,2)
0,97
(0,81-1,17)
Employer
473 (3,6)
0,88
(0,69-1,14)
548 (3,1)
0,77
(0,59-1,01)
Employee
784 (5,9)
0,57
(0,45-0,71)
579 (3,3)
0,75
(0,58-0,98)
Family workers
85 (0,6)
1,01
(0,54-1,90)
187 (1,1)
1,16
(0,74-1,82)
Women
Formals
Employee
8475 (80,2)
1
12027 (82,5)
1
Self-employed
470 (4,4)
1,19
(0,89-1,59)
572 (3,9)
1,06
(0,80-1,38)
Employer
133 (1,3)
1,03
(0,64-1,64)
144 (1,0)
2,33
(1,42-3,82)
Informals
Self-employed
511 (4,8)
0,83
(0,63-1,10)
711 (4,9)
0,66
(0,52-0,85)
Employer
188 (1,8)
1,08
(0,69-1,67)
266 (1,8)
0,48
(0,31-0,75)
Employee
698 (6,6)
0,97
(0,76-1,22)
632 (4,3)
0,59
(0,45-0,78)
Family workers
95 (0,9)
2,2
(1,18-4,09)
219 (1,5)
0,58
(0,38-0,89)
Association between occupational status and poor work-related health. Men and women in 2005 and 2010.
Source: own elaboration
* Adjusted by age, occupation, education, country ,working hours, income, ambiental and ergonomic risks.

5. Conclusions
• During the economic downturn IE had decrease in most of countries
• Informal workers not worse PWRH
• Results (IE-PWRH) are contradictory with our initial hypothesis
• Recommendations:
 Others indicators: mental health
 New instruments to measure IE
 Definition of IE (to be measured for Public Health)
• Possible causes:
 PWRH is not the best indicator
 EWCS is not made to study IE. New instruments
 How to measure IE