New Research in WHO Report Points to a Link Between Solid Employment and Health

For the past three years, an eminent group of policy makers, academics, former heads of state and former ministers of health have been investigating the differences between and within countries that result from the social environment where people are born, live, grow, work and age – the social determinates of health. Together, they comprise the World Health Organization's Commission on the Social Determents of Health, which has produced new report entitled Closing the Gap in a Generation: Health Equity through Action on the Social Determinants of Health.

The report contains three overarching recommendations to achieve health equality, including improving daily living conditions by focusing on early child development and education for girls and boys, improving working conditions.  The data and recommendations on workplace came from the Employment Conditions Knowledge Network (EMCONET), one of nine Knowledge Networks established to inform the final report, chaired by CAMH’s Psychiatric and Addictions Nursing Research Chair  Dr. Carles Muntaner and by Joan Benach, adjunct scientist in the  Social Equity and Health (SEH) research unit.

Dr. Muntaner and his team explain that employment and working conditions have powerful effects on health equity.  For example, poor mental health outcomes are associated with precarious employment (e.g. temporary contracts or part-time work), and workers who perceive work insecurity experience significant adverse effects on their physical and mental health. In Closing the Gap in a Generation, they call for – and outline steps to achieve - global, national and local action to improve employment and work.

The Commission presented this new report to the WHO’s director-general.  They also produced an accompanying policy document that was distributed to all ministers of health in countries that are part of the WHO.  Dr. Muntaner participated in these knowledge-sharing activities by presenting the workplace data at the “5th World Conference on the Promotion of Mental Health and the Prevention of Mental and Behavioral Disorders” in Melbourne, Australia in September, and at the two-day international conference “Closing the Gap in a Generation: Health Equity through Action on the Social Determinants of Health” in London, England in November. Over 400 delegates from around the world, including British PM Gordon Brown and his secretary for health, gathered in London to explore the recommendations made in the Commission's report. For more details, including video from conference sessions, visit  CSDH Conference.

Dr. Muntaner and colleagues also published an article entitled “Addressing social determinants of health inequities: what can the state and civil society do?” in the November 8, 2008 issue of the Lancet. In this health policy article, the authors selected and reviewed evidence synthesised by nine knowledge networks established by WHO to support the Commission on the Social Determinants of Health.

For more information on EMCONET visit  Employment Relations and Health Inequities.  Additional information on Dr. Muntaner’s contribution to Closing the Gap in a Generation, including links to the final report, visit Steady work and mental health – is there a connection?

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