Are women breaking the glass ceiling? A gendered analysis of the duration of sick leave in Spain.

We study the gender gap in the duration of sick leave in Spain by splitting this duration into two types of days - those which are related to biological characteristics and those derived from behavioral reasons. Using the Statistics of Accidents at Work for 2011-2019, we found that women presented longer standard durations (i.e., purely attached to physiological reasons) compared to men. However, when estimating individuals' efficiency as the ratio between actual and standard durations, we found that women were more inefficient at lower levels of income, whereas in case of men, this occurred at higher levels of income. These results were reinforced when considering that men and women do not recover from the same injury at the same rate. Women were more efficient than men across all the compensation distribution, especially at higher income levels.

Hostile attitudes toward immigrants and refugees are associated with poor self-rated health. Analysis of 21 European countries.

BACKGROUND: Previous studies found that individuals who harbor hostile attitudes toward immigrants & refugees tend to vote for far right nationalist parties, and that the same individuals also tend to report worse health status. We sought to test these associations using the latest data from 21 EU countries, and also whether the associations were moderated by the share of unemployed people in each region and individuals' labor situation. METHODS: We analyzed the second release of the 2016 European Social Survey which includes different questions about attitudes toward immigrants and refugees, as well as a rich variety of socioeconomic variables. Multilevel Poisson regression models were developed, regressing fair/poor health on attitudes towards immigrants & refugees. RESULTS: For each one point increase in favorable attitudes toward immigrants, the prevalence of fair/poor health was reduced by 2 percentage points (PR = 0.98; 95%CI: 0.96-0.99). In analyses incorporating cross-level interactions, the association was not moderated by high background unemployment rates or individual labor market attachment. CONCLUSION: Positive attitudes toward immigrants are correlated with lower prevalence of fair/poor health in general, regardless of individuals' labor situation and the objective economic situation. Fostering empathy toward immigrants and refugees may thus promote a healthier society, especially among more prejudiced individuals.

Do individuals' attitudes toward immigrants affect their own health? Analysis of 15 European countries.

BACKGROUND: Hostility toward others is related to negative emotions, which is hypothesized to have negative health consequences. In this article, we sought to test the relationship between individuals' attitudes toward immigrants and their self-rated health (SRH) across time in large dataset of 15 European countries. METHODS: We used the 2010, 2012, 2014 and 2016 waves of the European Social Survey, which include information about attitudes toward immigrants and individuals' SRH. RESULTS: Combining all countries and survey years, we found an association between negative attitudes toward immigrants and fair/poor SRH. However, when analyzing the relationship within each country, we found variations (depending on the year of the survey) in some countries, such as Hungary, Poland, Portugal, Sweden and Slovenia. Additionally, we found that there are more middle class individuals who hold unfavorable attitudes toward immigrants over time. CONCLUSIONS: In general, poor attitudes toward immigrants are associated with higher odds of reporting fair/poor health, although the 'health advantage' of those with favorable attitudes is diminishing over time. However, in some countries, this relationship is contingent on when the survey was conducted, possibly reflecting the changing composition of individuals who hold unfavorable attitudes toward immigrants.

Examining gender health inequalities in Europe using a Synthetic Health Indicator: the role of family policies.

BACKGROUND: Family policies have been shown to affect men's and women's health throughout the European Union, though particularly in the case of women. This paper seeks to analyze this effect by creating two Synthetic Health Indicators (SHIs) differentiated by gender applying the P2 distance method. We also aim to compare the results obtained by means of our SHI and the Self-rated health (SRH) indicator, as it is the most common indicator used to approach individuals' health. METHODS: The 2012 European Quality of Life Survey was used to construct the SHI. Dimensions such as physical health, mental health, psychosocial resources, the capacity of health services and community health status were included in our SHI. All proved to be relevant when measuring individuals' health. RESULTS: Gender health inequalities differed depending on the indicator used in each European country. When considering family policy, we found significant gender health gaps that favoured men in traditional countries, regardless of the indicator used (SHI or SRH). Moreover, with our SHI we found significant gender health inequalities in market-oriented and dual-earner countries that were not revealed by the SRH indicator, highlighting the fact that current equality policies are necessary but insufficient to overcome the gender health gap. CONCLUSIONS: The SHI was more sensitive to gender differences and evidenced certain advantages compared to the SRH. The SHI includes a wide range of variables that incorporated large amounts of fresh information, allowing men and women to have a personalized design of their own health.

The relationship between social capital and self-rated health: A gendered analysis of 17 European countries.

BACKGROUND: Women live longer than men, but they report worse self-rated health. Using data from 17 European countries, we sought to test whether gender differences in social capital could account for the male/female gap in self-rated health. METHODS: We used the first release of the 8th European Social Survey which includes information about individuals' social networks, participation in social groups, trust in institutions, and sense of belonging. Multilevel Poisson regression models were performed, regressing fair/poor self-rated health on social capital dimensions. RESULTS: Stronger social integration was associated with lower prevalence of fair/poor health for both men and women, with the exception of religious involvement and meeting socially with relatives, friends or colleagues. For women, the presence of people with whom to discuss personal and intimate matters was protective for fair/poor self-rated health (prevalence ratio: 0.98; 95% CI: 0.97-1.00), whereas for men participation in political parties or action groups was most protective (PR 0.81; 95% CI: 0.73-0.90). When comparing across types of welfare state regimes, citizens of Eastern European countries reported lower levels of participation in social activities, institutional trust and sense of belonging. CONCLUSION: We observed gender differences in the specific dimensions of social capital that were correlated with self-rated health. However social capital did not explain the gender gap in fair/poor self-rated health.

The gender gap in self-rated health and education in Spain. A multilevel analysis.

BACKGROUND: Women tend to report poorer self-rated health than men. It is also well established that education has a positive effect on health. However, the issue of how the benefits of education on health differ between men and women has not received enough attention and the few existing studies which do focus on the subject do not draw a clear conclusion. Therefore, this study aims to analyse whether the positive influence of educational attainment on health is higher for women and whether education helps to overcome the gender gap in self-rated health. METHODS: We analyse cross-sectional data from the 2012 European Union statistics on income and living conditions. We use a logit regression model with odds ratios and a multilevel perspective to carry out a study which includes several individual and contextual control variables. We focused our study on the working population in Spain aged between 25 and 65. The final sample considered is composed of 14,120 subjects: 7,653 men and 6,467 women. RESULTS: There is a gender gap in self-rated health only for the less educated. This gap is not statistically significant among more highly educated individuals. Attaining a high level of education has the same positive effect on both women's and men's self-rated health. CONCLUSIONS: Although we did not find gender disparities when considering the effect of education on health, we show that women's health is poorer among the less educated, mainly due to labour precariousness and household conditions.