The association between labour force participation and being in income poverty amongst those with mental health problems

Abstract

Objectives: Mental health conditions are associated with lower standards of living. This study quantifies the relationship between employment, depression and other mental health conditions and being in income poverty.

Methods: Cross-sectional analysis was undertaken using the 2003 Survey of Disability, Ageing and Carers data for Australians aged 45–64 years.

Results: Those not in the labour force due to depression and other mental health conditions are significantly more likely (odds ratio (OR) 12.53, 95% CI: 12.20–12.86, p < 0.0001; OR 20.10, 95% CI: 19.67–20.54, p < 0.0001) to be in income poverty than those not in the labour force with no chronic health condition. Amongst those with depression and other mental health conditions, those who were in employment were significantly less likely to be in income poverty than those who have had to retire because of the condition.

Conclusion: Due to the association between leaving the workforce due to mental health problems and poverty status, efforts to increase the employment of individuals with mental health conditions, or prevent the onset of the conditions, will likely improve living standards.

Keywords:

• poverty
• labour force participation
• retirement
• living standards

Acknowledgements

The development of the microsimulation model used in this research, Health & Wealth MOD, is funded by the Australian Research Council (under grant LP07749193), and Pfizer Australia is a partner to the grant. All authors are independent of the funding sources.

Notes

Notes

1. A small proportion of records (less than 10% of all records in the SDAC) either refused to answer the survey question regarding their personal income, or stated that they did not know what it was. For these individuals with missing information on personal income, their personal income was imputed using regression modelling. A regression model was built which estimated personal income based upon age (5-year age groups), sex, employment status (employed full-time, employed part-time, unemployed, not in the labour force), health status (has a long-term health condition, does not have a long-term health condition), occupation (nine groups set by the ABS) and education attainment (tertiary or non-tertiary education attainment).

2. This is equivalent to $275.20 per week in 2009 (in order to account for the inflation from 2003 to 2009, the poverty line was indexed by the Consumer Price Index (ABS 2010).