Path analyses demonstrate indirect effects of job quality on health outcomes via housing and social challenges in middle age, suggesting job quality's importance.
Objective To examine whether the association between job quality and health can be explained by its effects on other social determinants of health (SDOH). Methods We ran hybrid path analyses using data from two waves of a national survey of middle-aged adults to test direct and indirect effects of T1 job quality on health outcomes at T2, through effects on T2 housing, healthcare, social, and money challenges. Results Poor job quality predicted housing, healthcare, social, and money challenges in all models. Indirect effects of T1 poor job quality emerged for T2 physical health-related quality of life via housing challenges, T2 drug misuse via housing and healthcare challenges, and T2 depressive symptoms via housing and social challenges. Conclusions Results support job quality as an upstream issue that can affect health through its impact on other SDOH.
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Bonney et al. (2025) studied this question.
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