Sex Differences in Factors Associated with General Life Satisfaction among Occupationally Injured Workers in Korea: A Panel Analysis of the 2013–2017 Panel Study of Worker’s Compensation Insurance

Abstract

The majority of previous occupational studies focused on factors affecting life satisfaction among occupationally injured workers have been based on a cross-sectional design, not a sex-aggregated model. This study aimed to identify sex differences in factors related to life satisfaction among workers who experienced work-related injuries using nationally representative panel data from South Korea. Data from the first to fifth (2013–2017) waves of the Panel Study of Worker’s Compensation Insurance were analyzed. Of 1514 respondents, those who participated in all five survey waves were included in the final study population. To assess the factors associated with general life satisfaction of the occupationally injured workers, a panel data analysis was conducted using generalized estimating equations. The impacts of education level, return to work, self-rated health, task performance, self-esteem, and self-efficacy were significant in both sexes. On the other hand, the influence of age, marital status, personal labor income, and National Basic Livelihood Act recipient status significantly varied by sex. There were sex differences in factors related to general life satisfaction among occupationally injured workers, highlighting the need for sex-specific intervention programs. Employers, healthcare providers, and other stakeholders need to pay attention to vulnerable groups and investigate the most appropriate financial support.

The other side of the coin: An integrative review connecting pay and health.

“…Gender was also found to be a moderator, although with mixed effects. Low pay was more harmful for men than women for European workers (Cottini, 2012), consistent with findings on personal income and health, which show stronger effects for men (Noh et al, 2019). Other research in Sweden, a country high in gender egalitarianism, has found the opposite effect where pay is more strongly related to health for women, compared to men (Hemström, 2005).…”

“…Ryu (2016) also drew on the effort-reward imbalance model and conservation of resources theory to argue why a low salary and long work hours will result in worse health. Other work has made arguments consistent with this theory, in that underpayment results in more anger, depression, and physical symptoms (Narisada, 2017).…”

“…Regarding research on relative wages, a general pattern seems to emerge that low relative wages are related to lower well-being, including mood disorders (Platt et al, 2016), anger, physical symptoms (Narisada, 2017), and allostatic load (Daly et al, 2015). One's pay relative to similar others even predicts well-being effects above and beyond one's absolute pay (Boyce et al, 2010;Daly et al, 2015;Wood et al, 2012).…”

“…Perceptions of pay are also a critical determinant of health outcomes. Feeling underpaid or unfairly paid has trickle-down effects resulting in higher heart-rate variability and stress (Falk et al, 2018), distress (Narisada, 2017), depression (Schieman et al, 2020), and worse self-rated physical health (Falk et al, 2018;Kao et al, 2018;Schunck et al, 2015). Prior work also shows that income relative to others is more predictive of health than absolute income (Daly et al, 2015).…”