School of Social Work, Cleveland State University.
School of Social Work, Florida Atlantic University.
Am J Orthopsychiatry. 2018;88(1):1-9. doi: 10.1037/ort0000293. Epub 2017 Sep 14.
Paid sick leave is increasingly identified as a social justice issue having important implications for health and wellness; however, little is known about its relationship to mental health. Data from the 2015 cross section of the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS; 2015) were used to examine the relationship between paid sick leave and psychological distress during the last 30 days among N = 17,897 working United States adults. The 6-item Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K6), a valid and reliable instrument for assessing psychological distress in population based samples, was used to measure the outcome variable of interest. The K6 score was computed from 6 questions and was regressed on paid sick leave status, after controlling for variables known to be related to psychological distress. Results indicated that workers who lack paid sick leave benefits report a statistically significant higher level of psychological distress, and are 1.45 times more likely to report their distress symptoms interfere a lot with their life or activities compared with workers with paid sick leave. This research adds to a body of work analyzing institutional structures and social determinants of health. Findings support the potential value of paid sick leave as an intervention to promote behavioral health. (PsycINFO Database Record
带薪病假越来越被认为是一个具有重要健康和福利意义的社会公正问题；然而，人们对其与心理健康的关系知之甚少。本研究使用 2015 年全国健康访谈调查（NHIS；2015）的横断面数据，调查了美国 17897 名在职成年人过去 30 天内带薪病假与心理困扰之间的关系。Kessler 心理困扰量表（K6）是一种用于评估基于人群样本中心理困扰的有效且可靠的工具，被用来测量感兴趣的结果变量。K6 评分由 6 个问题计算得出，并在控制了已知与心理困扰相关的变量后，对其进行了回归分析。结果表明，缺乏带薪病假福利的工人报告的心理困扰水平显著更高，与有带薪病假的工人相比，他们报告的困扰症状对其生活或活动有很大影响的可能性高 1.45 倍。这项研究增加了分析机构结构和健康社会决定因素的工作内容。研究结果支持带薪病假作为促进行为健康的干预措施的潜在价值。
