Condições de saúde e aspectos sócio demográficos associados ao trabalho remunerado entre homens e mulheres na faixa etária de 50-69 anos

Abstract

Introduction: Increasing the permanence of elderly in the labor market and stimulating people to come back to work after they have retired are examples of active aging. This process allows optimizing health opportunities, participation and safety with the purpose of improving the quality of life as people age. In this respect, it is required to know the factors associated with the permanence in the labor market of people in age of transition to retirement. Objectives: (1) Examining social demographic factors and health indicators associated with paid work between 50-59 years men and women; (2) Identifying differences between genders regarding paid work factors in this group. Methods: Data were collected from Inquérito de Saúde da Região Metropolitana de Belo Horizonte (Health Survey of the Metropolitan Region of Belo Horizonte), conducted between May and June 2010. Factors associated with paid work were examined in a probabilistic sample of 3,320 individuals (50-69 years) residents of the metropolitan region of Belo Horizonte. Variables studied included socio-demographic characteristics, discrimination in the work environment, health behavior and health conditions. The multivariate data analysis was based on prevalence ratios (PR) with a robust variance, considering analytical procedures for complex samples. Results: The prevalence of the paid work was of 62.8% among men and 35.8% among women. In both genders, paid work showed a positive association with education and a negative association with self-rated health. The probability of having paid work was higher among women without a spouse and among those who knew someone who had been discriminated in the work environment. Among men, the prevalence of paid work varied from 67.2% among those with 8 years of schooling and who rated their health as better to 37.8% among those with less education and who rated their health as poor (PR = 0.56; 95%CI: 0.37-0.87). Among women, the corresponding prevalence rates were from 42.1% to 3.6% (PR = 0.09; 95%CI: 0.03-0.26). Conclusion: The results showed that the probability of having paid work among women with low education and worse health conditions was ten times lower than among their male equivalents. The results of the present study have attracted the attention to the need of further investigation to examine gender differences in relation to determinants of permanence of elderly in the labor market.