Male and female labour force participation rates in Canada have changed dramatically over the last three decades. The percentage of labour force participants who are female increased from 39% to 48% between 1980 and 2011. Despite this increase in female labour market participation, much of our understanding of how aspects of work impact on health status is still male-centric. Nowhere is this more evident than in the area of the psychosocial work environment and chronic disease. Much of what we understand about how and what to measure as part of the psychosocial work environment, and the relationship between these dimensions and disease has been generated in male-dominated samples. The purpose of this project is to build an evidence base concerning male and female differences in the relationship between the psychosocial work environment and future risk of metabolic diseases.
• To examine gender/sex differences in the relationship between the psychosocial work environment and subsequent health behaviour and body mass index (BMI) trajectories over a 16-year period.
• To examine the relationship between the psychosocial work environment and cardiovascular disease in Ontario over a 12-year period.
This project will help develop a cross-disciplinary, cross-jurisdictional, team of researchers to undertake future work exploring the relationships between the work environment and risk of disease that takes into account gender and sex. Partners include the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES), as well as collaboration with the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety (CCOHS).