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. 2024 Nov;34(3):172-181.
doi: 10.1177/10482911241269313. Epub 2024 Aug 9.

Improving Identification of Gig Workers in National Health and Behavior Surveys

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Improving Identification of Gig Workers in National Health and Behavior Surveys

Michael Chidera Ofonedu et al. New Solut. 2024 Nov.

Abstract

This paper describes the work-related information collected in several important U.S. national health and behavior surveys, to highlight data gaps that prevent identifying responses by vulnerable workers in the gig economy, with emphasis on the growing digital platform sector of the work force. The national information systems used to understand health status and health behaviors, including drug use, rely on outdated census categories for self-employed workers. This paper describes the importance of understanding the needs of this growing part of the labor sector and describes how some of the most well-known and utilized national surveys fail to meet this need. For the agencies conducting national health and behavior surveys, we propose revisions to the categories used to classify type of worker and recommend adoption of a new Worker-Employer Relationship Classification model.

Keywords: digital platforms; gig economy; health behaviors; health risks; health surveys; worker classification.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Conflicting InterestsThe authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

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