Building the evidence base on links between working conditions, workplace health promotion and health

Protecting and promoting health is of the utmost importance to Europe, given the centrality of work to many Europeans. Work provides a source of income and social protection, helps determine social status, enables access to social networks, and exposes a person to different working environments – thereby significantly affecting health.

The University of Dusseldorf will lead work on updating knowledge on links between working conditions, social inequalities and unequal health. Looking not only at physical and environmental hazards but also at the efforts and demands of work itself, this review will provide us with a broader understanding of employment and workplace conditions as determinants of health at the individual, workplace and wider-geographic level.

Following this, national employment policies will be linked to quality of work and their effects on health inequalities. Overall, the results are expected to inform policy makers about the means – and importance – of reducing health inequalities in occupational life through fair employment.

Objectives

  • Update knowledge on links between working conditions, social inequalities and unequal health.
  • Bring together current evidence about employment and workplace safety interventions at different levels (micro, meso, macro) and critically evaluate their effectiveness.
  • Develop a theoretical model linking national employment and social policies to the quality of work and their effects on unequal health.

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