OHSU-PSU School of Public Health, Portland, Oregon, USA.
Department of Epidemiology, Columbia Mailman School of Public Health, New York, New York, USA.
J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci. 2022 Oct 6;77(10):1928-1937. doi: 10.1093/geronb/gbac095.
The COVID-19 pandemic has profoundly affected the lives of people globally, widening long-standing inequities. We examined the COVID-19 pandemic's impact on employment conditions by race/ethnicity, gender, and educational attainment and the association between such conditions and well-being in older adults in the United States.
Using data from the Health and Retirement Study respondents interviewed between May 2020 and May 2021 when they were ≥55 years of age, we examined intersectional patterns in COVID-19-related changes in employment conditions among 4,107 participants working for pay at the start of the pandemic. We also examined the compounding nature of changes in employment conditions and their association with financial hardship, food insecurity, and poor self-rated health.
Relative to non-Hispanic White men with greater than high school education (>HS), Black and Latinx men and women were more likely to experience job loss irrespective of education; among those who did not experience job loss, men with ≤HS reporting Black, Latinx, or "other" race were >90% less likely to transition to remote work. Participants who experienced job loss with decreased income or continued in-person employment with decreased income/shift changes had greater prevalence of financial hardship, food insecurity, and poor/fair self-rated health than others.
The impact of COVID-19 on employment conditions is inequitably patterned and is associated with financial hardship, food insecurity, and adverse health in older adults. Policies to improve employment quality and expand social insurance programs among this group are needed to reduce growing inequities in well-being later in life.
新冠疫情大流行深刻影响了全球人民的生活，扩大了长期存在的不平等现象。我们研究了种族/民族、性别和受教育程度对就业状况的影响，以及这些状况与美国老年人福祉之间的关系。
利用健康与退休研究（Health and Retirement Study）受访者的数据，这些受访者在 2020 年 5 月至 2021 年 5 月期间接受了采访，当时他们的年龄在 55 岁及以上。我们调查了 4107 名在疫情开始时从事有薪工作的参与者中，与 COVID-19 相关的就业状况变化在交叉层面上的模式。我们还研究了就业状况变化的复合性质及其与经济困难、食物不安全和健康自评较差之间的关联。
与受教育程度高于高中的非西班牙裔白人男性相比，黑人和拉丁裔男性和女性无论受教育程度如何，失业的可能性都更高；在没有失业的人群中，报告为黑人、拉丁裔或“其他”种族的受教育程度低于高中的男性转为远程工作的可能性低于 90%。经历了收入减少的失业或继续从事面对面工作但收入减少/工作时间变化的参与者，其经济困难、食物不安全和健康自评较差/一般的比例高于其他人。
COVID-19 对就业状况的影响模式不平等，与老年人的经济困难、食物不安全和健康不良有关。需要制定政策来改善这一群体的就业质量并扩大社会保险计划，以减少晚年福祉方面日益扩大的不平等现象。
