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Attending Work Stress & Health 2008?
Here are some other events that may be of interest to you while
you are in Washington for the conference.....
Global Epidemics: The Contribution of Work
March
5, 2008: 3-5 PM
[Click here for Event
Details]
Peter Schnall , Professor of Medicine, University
of California at Irvine, and Director, Center for Social Epidemiology
Paul Landsbergis , Associate Professor of Community and
Preventive Medicine, Mount Sinai School of Medicine
Marnie Dobson , Associate Director, Center for Social Epidemiology,
and Research Associate, Center for Occupational and Environmental Health
at University of California, Irvine
Ellen Rosskam , Southeast Europe Policy Scholar, Woodrow
Wilson Center
The global epidemics of today—hypertension, heart disease, stroke, diabetes,
and depression—have replaced infectious diseases as the major causes of chronic
illness and death in most parts of the world. Medicine struggles to find technologies
to cope with these chronic diseases while prevention is neglected. Yet, the
single strongest predictor of one's health is social class position. One significant
means through which social class transmits illness is through occupation and
working conditions. Research shows that employees facing high demands at their
job combined with low control over the work process or high efforts combined
with low rewards are more likely to die of heart disease and suffer from mental
health problems than workers without such job stressors. With income inequality
and overall economic insecurity increasing worldwide, protecting employees
from harm at work must be accompanied by initiatives addressing social and
economic disparities in general. Making occupation more conducive to health
also means increasing worker autonomy and participation in the workplace, including
collective representation through trade unions, healthy job redesign, living
wage jobs, paid sick and family leave and vacation time, universal access to
health care, and pensions. Approaches focused on changing individual behaviors
keep the discussion focused on individual responsibility without addressing
the underlying causes of poor health and the systemic change that is needed
to reduce and prevent the burden of chronic illness plaguing the U.S. and many
other countries.
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