María López-Ruiz | Pompeu Fabra University (original) (raw)
Papers by María López-Ruiz
Occupational and environmental medicine, 2014
To analyse the relationship between mental health and non-agricultural informal employment in Cen... more To analyse the relationship between mental health and non-agricultural informal employment in Central America; and to examine whether patterns of association differ by gender Cross-sectional study of 8904 non-agricultural workers (48% women) based on the I Central American Survey of Working Conditions and Health of 2011. Employment profiles were created combining formal and informal characteristics: labour relationship (permanent employees, temporary employees, self-employed, employers), social security coverage (yes, no), type of contract for employees (written, oral or no contract), company size for employers (≤5, >5 workers). Using logistic regression models, odds ratios (OR) of poor mental health (measured by GHQ12 questionnaire) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) were calculated by sex, adjusting for country and age, with employment profiles as independent variable. The reference group was permanent employees covered by social security with a written contract. Around 37% ...
Dicen muchos medios de comunicación, del norte global, que el 2017 ha sido el año del feminismo, ... more Dicen muchos medios de comunicación, del norte global, que el 2017 ha sido el año del feminismo, solo hay que hacer una búsqueda rápida en cualquier buscador para dar buena cuenta de ello. Según el diccionario estadounidense Merriam-Webster la palabra " feminismo " ha sido la más buscada el año pasado 1. Y es verdad que algo está cambiando en las sociedades occidentales en cuanto a la visibilidad, la aceptación, la incorporación –tanto en la academia como fuera de ella– y la permeación de los femi-nismos en un nivel mucho más general entre las distintas capas de la sociedad. Desde la salud laboral no podemos mantenernos al margen de los debates actuales que se dan en nuestra sociedad, y menos aún si estos nos tocan directamente en nuestra práctica profesio-nal. Si no queremos quedarnos atrás, hemos de ser agentes que participen activamente en los mismos, porque tenemos mucho que aportar y mucho que aprender y aprehender. Un ejemplo cla-ro de estos debates, que se están dando a nivel internacional en las sociedades occidentales, es la huelga feminista del 8 de marzo de este año, promovida ya no por los sindicatos, sino por el mo-vimiento feminista de más de 150 países 2. A pesar de que ha sido una movilización masiva en muchos países, muchos medios ya re-conocen que en el caso del Estado español ha sido histórica y don-de más seguimiento ha tenido con diferencia, con más de cinco millones de personas trabajadoras secundado la huelga laboral 3. Por un lado, efectivamente, se convocó una huelga laboral, ya que las desigualdades de género en el mercado laboral siguen siendo uno de los temas candentes de las reivindicaciones que, como bien sabemos, persisten a día de hoy. El mercado laboral sigue teniendo una clara segmentación horizontal y vertical, las mujeres tienen tasas de paro más elevadas que los hombres y, por supuesto, la desigualdad salarial persiste. En parte, esto es debi-do a que las mujeres ocupan los empleos más precarizados, con mayor temporalidad, con mayor informalidad en el empleo, con jornadas parciales que les permitan en muchos casos compaginar el empleo con las responsabilidades de cuidados, etc 4, 5. A su vez, la exposición a condiciones de trabajo (remunerado) siguen sien
Descripción de las tendencias de las lesiones por accidentes de trabajo por Comunidades Autónomas... more Descripción de las tendencias de las lesiones por accidentes de trabajo por Comunidades Autónomas, 1994-2004 © Observatorio de Salud Laboral (OSL), 2007 Conclusiones 1. La tendencia de las LAT analizadas en este estudio experimentan, en todas las CCAA, un descenso significativo a partir del año 2000. Un cambio de tendencia que, de acuerdo con los resultados del estudio, difícilmente puede ser atribuido específicamente a los PAP.
Public health reports (Washington, D.C. : 1974)
We examined the effectiveness of preventive interventions against occupational injuries (preferen... more We examined the effectiveness of preventive interventions against occupational injuries (preferential action plans [PAPs]) developed by Spanish regional governments starting in 2000. We included 3,252,028 occupational injuries with sick leave due to mechanical causes occurring between 1994 and 2004 in manufacturing and private service companies. Time trends for occupational injury rates were estimated before and after implementation of PAPs in each region, with a control group defined for those regions in which no PAPs were implemented (e.g., Galicia, Madrid, and Cataluña). We determined annual change percentages and their 95% confidence intervals (CIs) through a negative binomial regression model. Regions were grouped into three categories according to formal quality of their PAPs. The regions with the best PAPs (Andalucia, Aragon, Valencia, and Murcia) showed annually increasing occupational injury rates (2.3%, 95% CI -2.5, 7.4) before implementation of PAPs. After PAPs were imple...
Background Informal employment is assumed to be an important but seldom studied social determinan... more Background
Informal employment is assumed to be an important but seldom studied social determinant of health, affecting a large number of workers around the world. Although informal employment arrangements constitute a permanent, structural pillar of many labor markets in low- and middle-income countries, studies about its relationship with health status are still scarce. In Central America more than 60% of non-agricultural workers have informal employment. Therefore, we aimed to assess differences in self-perceived and mental health status of Central Americans with different patterns of informal and formal employment.
Methods
Employment profiles were created by combining employment relations (employees, self-employed, employers), social security coverage (yes/no) and type of contract -only for employees- (written, oral, none), in a cross-sectional study of 8,823 non-agricultural workers based on the I Central American Survey of Working Conditions and Health of 2011. Using logistic regression models, adjusted odds ratios (aOR) by country, age and occupation, of poor self-perceived and mental health were calculated by sex. Different models were first fitted separately for the three dimensions of employment conditions, then for employment profiles as independent variables.
Results
Poor self-perceived health was reported by 34% of women and 27% of men, and 30% of women and 26% of men reported poor mental health. Lack of social security coverage was associated with poor self-perceived health (women, aOR: 1.38, 95%CI: 1.13-1.67; men, aOR: 1.36, 95%CI: 1.13-1.63). Almost all employment profiles with no social security coverage were significantly associated with poor self-perceived and poor mental health in both sexes.
Conclusions
Our results show that informal employment is a significant factor in social health inequalities among Central American workers, which could be diminished by policies aimed at increasing social security coverage.
Occupational and environmental medicine, 2014
To analyse the relationship between mental health and non-agricultural informal employment in Cen... more To analyse the relationship between mental health and non-agricultural informal employment in Central America; and to examine whether patterns of association differ by gender Cross-sectional study of 8904 non-agricultural workers (48% women) based on the I Central American Survey of Working Conditions and Health of 2011. Employment profiles were created combining formal and informal characteristics: labour relationship (permanent employees, temporary employees, self-employed, employers), social security coverage (yes, no), type of contract for employees (written, oral or no contract), company size for employers (≤5, >5 workers). Using logistic regression models, odds ratios (OR) of poor mental health (measured by GHQ12 questionnaire) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) were calculated by sex, adjusting for country and age, with employment profiles as independent variable. The reference group was permanent employees covered by social security with a written contract. Around 37% of women and 34% of men reported poor mental health. In both sexes all profiles without social security coverage were associated with poor mental health except for permanent employees. Temporary employees covered by social security were associated with poor mental health if they have oral or no contract for women and men. Covered permanent employees with oral or no contract among women (OR: 1.70, 95% CI:1.12-2.59) and covered self-employed among men (OR: 1.59, 95% CI:1.03-2.46) were associated with poor mental health. In Central America health inequalities by employment profiles exist, principally for not being covered by social security, or having an oral or no contract for employees (main characteristics of informal employment). Few gender inequalities have been found.
Safety Science, 2013
The objective was to evaluate the effectiveness of an occupational injury prevention program, kno... more The objective was to evaluate the effectiveness of an occupational injury prevention program, known as the Preferential Action Plan (PAP), focused on companies with high incidence rates of occupational injuries. We studied 1189 companies in the industrial, construction and services sectors between 1999 and 2007 in the Valencia region (Spain). Our sample included 507,262 workers, among whom 44,250 nonfatal occupational injuries with at least a workday lost were registered. Companies included in a PAP program were divided into three intervention groups, according to the year that each company entered into a PAP (2000, 2001, and 2002). We calculated annual percentage change in incidence rates of occupational injuries for companies with a PAP and for those without a PAP (comparison group), and trends in the incidence rates of occupational injuries were compared between each intervention group and the comparison group. The results showed that the trend in the occupational injury rate declined 12%, 14% and 11% annually for the 2000, 2001, and 2002 intervention groups respectively, and around 5% for the comparison group. The differences in intervention and comparison group trends were found to be statistically significant. This pattern is observed by company size and activity sector, length of sick leave, and type of injury. According to these results, the use of PAPs in companies with high incidence rates of occupational injuries seems to be effective in the prevention of occupational injuries.
Occupational and environmental medicine, 2014
To analyse the relationship between mental health and non-agricultural informal employment in Cen... more To analyse the relationship between mental health and non-agricultural informal employment in Central America; and to examine whether patterns of association differ by gender Cross-sectional study of 8904 non-agricultural workers (48% women) based on the I Central American Survey of Working Conditions and Health of 2011. Employment profiles were created combining formal and informal characteristics: labour relationship (permanent employees, temporary employees, self-employed, employers), social security coverage (yes, no), type of contract for employees (written, oral or no contract), company size for employers (≤5, >5 workers). Using logistic regression models, odds ratios (OR) of poor mental health (measured by GHQ12 questionnaire) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) were calculated by sex, adjusting for country and age, with employment profiles as independent variable. The reference group was permanent employees covered by social security with a written contract. Around 37% ...
Dicen muchos medios de comunicación, del norte global, que el 2017 ha sido el año del feminismo, ... more Dicen muchos medios de comunicación, del norte global, que el 2017 ha sido el año del feminismo, solo hay que hacer una búsqueda rápida en cualquier buscador para dar buena cuenta de ello. Según el diccionario estadounidense Merriam-Webster la palabra " feminismo " ha sido la más buscada el año pasado 1. Y es verdad que algo está cambiando en las sociedades occidentales en cuanto a la visibilidad, la aceptación, la incorporación –tanto en la academia como fuera de ella– y la permeación de los femi-nismos en un nivel mucho más general entre las distintas capas de la sociedad. Desde la salud laboral no podemos mantenernos al margen de los debates actuales que se dan en nuestra sociedad, y menos aún si estos nos tocan directamente en nuestra práctica profesio-nal. Si no queremos quedarnos atrás, hemos de ser agentes que participen activamente en los mismos, porque tenemos mucho que aportar y mucho que aprender y aprehender. Un ejemplo cla-ro de estos debates, que se están dando a nivel internacional en las sociedades occidentales, es la huelga feminista del 8 de marzo de este año, promovida ya no por los sindicatos, sino por el mo-vimiento feminista de más de 150 países 2. A pesar de que ha sido una movilización masiva en muchos países, muchos medios ya re-conocen que en el caso del Estado español ha sido histórica y don-de más seguimiento ha tenido con diferencia, con más de cinco millones de personas trabajadoras secundado la huelga laboral 3. Por un lado, efectivamente, se convocó una huelga laboral, ya que las desigualdades de género en el mercado laboral siguen siendo uno de los temas candentes de las reivindicaciones que, como bien sabemos, persisten a día de hoy. El mercado laboral sigue teniendo una clara segmentación horizontal y vertical, las mujeres tienen tasas de paro más elevadas que los hombres y, por supuesto, la desigualdad salarial persiste. En parte, esto es debi-do a que las mujeres ocupan los empleos más precarizados, con mayor temporalidad, con mayor informalidad en el empleo, con jornadas parciales que les permitan en muchos casos compaginar el empleo con las responsabilidades de cuidados, etc 4, 5. A su vez, la exposición a condiciones de trabajo (remunerado) siguen sien
Descripción de las tendencias de las lesiones por accidentes de trabajo por Comunidades Autónomas... more Descripción de las tendencias de las lesiones por accidentes de trabajo por Comunidades Autónomas, 1994-2004 © Observatorio de Salud Laboral (OSL), 2007 Conclusiones 1. La tendencia de las LAT analizadas en este estudio experimentan, en todas las CCAA, un descenso significativo a partir del año 2000. Un cambio de tendencia que, de acuerdo con los resultados del estudio, difícilmente puede ser atribuido específicamente a los PAP.
Public health reports (Washington, D.C. : 1974)
We examined the effectiveness of preventive interventions against occupational injuries (preferen... more We examined the effectiveness of preventive interventions against occupational injuries (preferential action plans [PAPs]) developed by Spanish regional governments starting in 2000. We included 3,252,028 occupational injuries with sick leave due to mechanical causes occurring between 1994 and 2004 in manufacturing and private service companies. Time trends for occupational injury rates were estimated before and after implementation of PAPs in each region, with a control group defined for those regions in which no PAPs were implemented (e.g., Galicia, Madrid, and Cataluña). We determined annual change percentages and their 95% confidence intervals (CIs) through a negative binomial regression model. Regions were grouped into three categories according to formal quality of their PAPs. The regions with the best PAPs (Andalucia, Aragon, Valencia, and Murcia) showed annually increasing occupational injury rates (2.3%, 95% CI -2.5, 7.4) before implementation of PAPs. After PAPs were imple...
Background Informal employment is assumed to be an important but seldom studied social determinan... more Background
Informal employment is assumed to be an important but seldom studied social determinant of health, affecting a large number of workers around the world. Although informal employment arrangements constitute a permanent, structural pillar of many labor markets in low- and middle-income countries, studies about its relationship with health status are still scarce. In Central America more than 60% of non-agricultural workers have informal employment. Therefore, we aimed to assess differences in self-perceived and mental health status of Central Americans with different patterns of informal and formal employment.
Methods
Employment profiles were created by combining employment relations (employees, self-employed, employers), social security coverage (yes/no) and type of contract -only for employees- (written, oral, none), in a cross-sectional study of 8,823 non-agricultural workers based on the I Central American Survey of Working Conditions and Health of 2011. Using logistic regression models, adjusted odds ratios (aOR) by country, age and occupation, of poor self-perceived and mental health were calculated by sex. Different models were first fitted separately for the three dimensions of employment conditions, then for employment profiles as independent variables.
Results
Poor self-perceived health was reported by 34% of women and 27% of men, and 30% of women and 26% of men reported poor mental health. Lack of social security coverage was associated with poor self-perceived health (women, aOR: 1.38, 95%CI: 1.13-1.67; men, aOR: 1.36, 95%CI: 1.13-1.63). Almost all employment profiles with no social security coverage were significantly associated with poor self-perceived and poor mental health in both sexes.
Conclusions
Our results show that informal employment is a significant factor in social health inequalities among Central American workers, which could be diminished by policies aimed at increasing social security coverage.
Occupational and environmental medicine, 2014
To analyse the relationship between mental health and non-agricultural informal employment in Cen... more To analyse the relationship between mental health and non-agricultural informal employment in Central America; and to examine whether patterns of association differ by gender Cross-sectional study of 8904 non-agricultural workers (48% women) based on the I Central American Survey of Working Conditions and Health of 2011. Employment profiles were created combining formal and informal characteristics: labour relationship (permanent employees, temporary employees, self-employed, employers), social security coverage (yes, no), type of contract for employees (written, oral or no contract), company size for employers (≤5, >5 workers). Using logistic regression models, odds ratios (OR) of poor mental health (measured by GHQ12 questionnaire) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) were calculated by sex, adjusting for country and age, with employment profiles as independent variable. The reference group was permanent employees covered by social security with a written contract. Around 37% of women and 34% of men reported poor mental health. In both sexes all profiles without social security coverage were associated with poor mental health except for permanent employees. Temporary employees covered by social security were associated with poor mental health if they have oral or no contract for women and men. Covered permanent employees with oral or no contract among women (OR: 1.70, 95% CI:1.12-2.59) and covered self-employed among men (OR: 1.59, 95% CI:1.03-2.46) were associated with poor mental health. In Central America health inequalities by employment profiles exist, principally for not being covered by social security, or having an oral or no contract for employees (main characteristics of informal employment). Few gender inequalities have been found.
Safety Science, 2013
The objective was to evaluate the effectiveness of an occupational injury prevention program, kno... more The objective was to evaluate the effectiveness of an occupational injury prevention program, known as the Preferential Action Plan (PAP), focused on companies with high incidence rates of occupational injuries. We studied 1189 companies in the industrial, construction and services sectors between 1999 and 2007 in the Valencia region (Spain). Our sample included 507,262 workers, among whom 44,250 nonfatal occupational injuries with at least a workday lost were registered. Companies included in a PAP program were divided into three intervention groups, according to the year that each company entered into a PAP (2000, 2001, and 2002). We calculated annual percentage change in incidence rates of occupational injuries for companies with a PAP and for those without a PAP (comparison group), and trends in the incidence rates of occupational injuries were compared between each intervention group and the comparison group. The results showed that the trend in the occupational injury rate declined 12%, 14% and 11% annually for the 2000, 2001, and 2002 intervention groups respectively, and around 5% for the comparison group. The differences in intervention and comparison group trends were found to be statistically significant. This pattern is observed by company size and activity sector, length of sick leave, and type of injury. According to these results, the use of PAPs in companies with high incidence rates of occupational injuries seems to be effective in the prevention of occupational injuries.