Primary Submission Category: Non-health institutions (business, political, education systems)
Exploring the Relationship Between Self-employment and Obesity, Across Racial and Ethnic Minority Status and Sex Using a Nationally Representative Survey
Authors: Kimberly Narain, Daniela Markovic, Jose Escarce,
Presenting Author: Kimberly Narain*
Background: The structure of work may be an underexplored contributor to the variation in the prevalence of obesity across race, ethnicity and sex. Specifically, self-employment has been associated with lower levels of obesity and obesity risk factors, but no studies have explored if there is variation in this relationship across race, ethnicity and sex. Furthermore, the conclusions that can be drawn from prior studies have been limited by the use of self-reported measures for obesity and obesity risk factors which can be subject to reporting bias. The objective of this study is to examine the association of self-employment, obesity and obesity risk factors, across racial and ethnic minority status as well as sex.
Methods: For this observational study, National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) data (1999-2018), a cross-sectional study design, and stratified logistic regression models were used to explore the association between self-employment, obesity and obesity risk factors, across combined racial and ethnic minority status and sex groups, among working, adults (ages 30-62). Measures of obesity and obesity risk factors (poor diet, physical inactivity, poor sleep duration and poor mental health) were dichotomized using well-established thresholds.
Results: The study sample was comprised of 19,395 working adults. Among non-minority women, self-employment was negatively associated with obesity, physical inactivity, and poor sleep duration. Among minority women, self-employment was negatively associated with poor diet, physical inactivity and poor sleep duration. Among non-minority men, self-employment was negatively associated with poor diet.
Conclusions: This study suggest that there may be a relationship between self-employment obesity and obesity risk factors that varies across racial/ethnic minority status and sex; however, further research is needed to characterize this relationship.