Occupational Medicine & Health Affairs
Open Access

Abstract

This study investigates physical and psychological health effects of occupational characteristics of the aboriginal population. Previous research confirms the role of various dimensions of socio-economic status as an important social determinant of health. Especially, it is reported that employment status as well as quality/type of jobs are significantly associated with health. Aboriginal people have been denied access to the resources and conditions necessary to maximize their socio-economic status. As a result, fewer aboriginal people are in the workforce. According to the 2006 Census, unemployment rates are higher for First Nations, Inuit and Métis with rates of 18%, 20% and 10% respectively compared to an unemployment rate of 7% for the general Canadian population. Although there have been a number of statistical reports on overall health and economic condition of aboriginal people, the relationship between aboriginal people’s occupational characteristics and specific health status has been less documented. This study attempts to fill that data gap by examining associations between various jobrelated conditions (such as type of occupation, education-skills mismatch, job tenure, firm size, industry, part-time/full-time, job sector, temporary/permanent) and physical (self-reported health, chronic conditions) and psychological (self-reported mental health, distress) health status. Using the 2012 aboriginal people’s survey and 2011 national household survey, this study intends to answer following questions:

Biography

Jungwee Park, PhD (Brown University) is a senior research analyst at Health Analysis Division, Statistics Canada. One of his research themes has been occupational health.

Email: Jungwee.Park@statcan.gc.ca