Maternal precarious employment and child overweight/obesity in the United States

Abstract

Precarious employment has increased in the United States and is now recognized as an important social determinant of health. Women are disproportionately employed in precarious jobs and are largely responsible for caretaking, which could deleteriously affect child weight. We utilized data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth adult and child cohorts (1996-2016; N = 4453) and identified 13 survey indicators to operationalize 7 dimensions of precarious employment (score range: 0-7, 7 indicating the most precarious): material rewards, working-time arrangements, stability, workers' rights, collective organization, interpersonal relations, and training. We estimated the association between maternal precarious employment and incident child overweight/obesity (BMI ≥85th percentile) using adjusted Poisson models. Between 1996 and 2016, the average age-adjusted precarious employment score among mothers was 3.7 (Standard Error [SE] = 0.02) and the average prevalence of children with overweight/obesity was 26.2% (SE = 0.5%). Higher maternal precarious employment was associated with a 10% higher incidence of children having overweight/obesity (Confidence Interval: 1.05, 1.14). A higher incidence of childhood overweight/obesity may have important implications at the population-level, due to the long-term health consequences of child obesity into adulthood. Policies to reduce employment precariousness should be considered and monitored for impacts on childhood obesity.

Keywords: Body mass index; Employment quality; National Longitudinal Survey of Youth; Social determinants of health.

Figure 1.. Maternal Age-Adjusted PES and Child BMI-for-Age Z-Score by Year, 1996–2016^a,b

CI: confidence interval; PES: precarious employment score; BMI: body mass index. ^a Age-adjusted PES and BMI-for-age z-score in each year are estimated using generalized estimating equations. Estimates incorporate the custom sample weights for 1996–2016. ^b The dashed lines denote the baseline values.