Not all hours are equal: could time be a social determinant of health?

Time can be thought of as a resource that people need for good health. Healthy behaviour, accessing health services, working, resting and caring all require time. Like other resources, time is socially shaped, but its relevance to health and health inequality is yet to be established. Drawing from sociology and political economy, we set out the theoretical basis for two measures of time relevant to contemporary, market-based societies. We measure amount of time spent on care and work (paid and unpaid) and the intensity of time, which refers to rushing, effort and speed. Using data from wave 9 (N = 9177) of the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics of Australia Survey we found that time poverty (> 80 h per week on care and work) and often or always rushing are barriers to physical activity and rushing is associated with poorer self-rated and mental health. Exploring their social patterning, we find that time-poor people have higher incomes and more time control. In contrast, rushing is linked to being a woman, lone parenthood, disability, lack of control and work-family conflicts. We supply a methodology to support quantitative investigations of time, and our findings underline time's dimensionality, social distribution and potential to influence health.The research was supported by an Australian Research Council linkage grant LP100100106 in partner-ship with the Department of Social Services (DSS) and Sydney West Area Heath Service (SWAHS). Thefindings and views reported in this article are those of the authors and should not be attributed to DSS,SWAHS and cannot be taken in any way as expressions of government policy or the Melbourne Institute.Lyndall Strazdins is supported by an Australian Research Council Future Fellowship FT110100686

Long Hours and Longings: Australian Children's Views of Fathers' Work and Family Time

Using two waves of paired data from a population sample of 10- to 13-year-old Australian children (5,711 father–child observations), the authors consider how the hours, schedules, intensity, and flexibility of fathers' jobs are associated with children's views about fathers' work and family time. A third of the children studied considered that their father works too much, one eighth wished that he did not work at all, and one third wanted more time with him or did not enjoy time together. Logistic regression modeling revealed that working on weekends, being time pressured, being unable to vary start and stop times, and working long hours generated negative views in children about fathers' jobs and time together. The time dilemmas generated by fathers' work devotions and demands are salient to and subjectively shared by their children.Lyndall Strazdins is supported by Australian Research Council Future Fellowship FT110100686, and this article was part of a visiting fellowship supported by the Berlin Social Science Center (Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung)

Modelling Within Mathematical Online Knowledge Building Communities

In this paper we present an alternative perspective on interactive and digital media learning environments (IDM) involving mathematical modeling. We argue that we need to move beyond using "add-on" and "up-grading" strategies to enrich learning, towards a focus on the generation of conceptual artifacts and the building of knowledge. To facilitate knowledge building, we advocate extending students beyond basic discourse to include a range of thinking and reasoning processes that can assist them in constructing, analyzing, refining, and conveying mathematical ideas. We also identify a number of knowledge-building enabling characteristics of an IDM-based learning environment and propose two sets of interrelated principles to inform the design of IDM environments and the accompanying ends-in-view activities. We illustrate our ideas with examples of online communities for mathematics education

Hour-glass ceilings: Work-hour thresholds, gendered health inequities

Long workhours erode health, which the setting of maximum weekly hours aims to avert. This 48-h limit, and the evidence base to support it, has evolved from a workforce that was largely male, whose time in the labour force was enabled by women's domestic work and care giving. The gender composition of the workforce has now changed, and many women (as well as some men) combine care-giving with paid work, a change viewed as fundamental for gender equality. However, it raises questions on the suitability of the work time limit and the extent it is protective of health. We estimate workhour-mental health thresholds, testing if they vary for men and women due to gendered workloads and constraints on and off the job. Using six waves of data from a nationally representative sample of Australian adults (24-65 years), surveyed in the Household Income Labour Dynamics of Australia Survey (N = 3828 men; 4062 women), our study uses a longitudinal, simultaneous equation approach to address endogeneity. Averaging over the sample, we find an overall threshold of 39 h per week beyond which mental health declines. Separate curves then estimate thresholds for men and women, by high or low care and domestic time constraints, using stratified and pooled samples. We find gendered workhour-health limits (43.5 for men, 38 for women) which widen further once differences in resources on and off the job are considered. Only when time is 'unencumbered' and similar time constraints and contexts are assumed, do gender gaps narrow and thresholds approximate the 48-h limit. Our study reveals limits to contemporary workhour regulation which may be systematically disadvantaging women's health.Lyndall Strazdins is supported by an Australian Research Council Future Fellowship FT110100686. This paper is part of a larger project supported by an Australian Research Council Linkage Grant LP100100106

Addressing the social determinants of inequities in mental wellbeing of children and adolescents

The aim of this report is to provide an overview of the social determinants of inequities in mental wellbeing in children and adolescents, to provide evidence on interventions which address inequitiesin wellbeing and to identify the evidence and conceptual gaps. We use the VicHealth Framework for Health Equity to identify points of entry at three layers of influence: (i) individual and family health-related factors, (ii) daily living conditions and (iii) the socioeconomic, cultural and political context. Our hope is that this report will serve as a resource for policy makers and practitioners to reduce inequities by addressing the social determinants of mental wellbeing in children and adolescents.This report was commisioned by VicHealt

A Probabilistic Fate and Effects Model for Pharmaceuticals and Personal Care Products

Pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) may be introduced to the environment via household disposal through plumbing drains, followed by conveyance to municipal wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). PPCP residuals contained in WWTP effluent may be discharged to aquatic systems (e.g., rivers, lakes, estuaries), while PPCP residuals in sludge may enter the terrestrial system through land application of sludge-derived biosolids. Rarely are the potential effects of those PPCP residuals on aquatic and terrestrial species considered. An ecological risk assessment framework was therefore developed to allow the quantitative evaluation of potential ecological risks posed by PPCPs in WWTP effluent and land-applied biosolids. In this framework, a fugacity and bioaccumulation model is employed to estimate distributions of potential ecological exposure under various environmental conditions. The predicted exposure estimates are then compared to measured or estimated effects concentrations for each ecological species of interest, in order to calculate potential risk from aquatic or terrestrial exposures. Additionally, the estimated dietary doses to mammalian and avian species can be compared to toxicity reference values derived from the primary or proprietary literature in order to determine risk from food chain exposures

Losing the workers who need the work most: Health effects on involuntary retirement.

Governments are encouraging workers to remain in employment beyond traditional retirement age. A tangible expression of this in Australia is the move to raise the Aged Pension access age from 65 to 67 by 2023. This policy assumes that the majority of workers will be able to extend their working lives. However, even at the age of 65, one-third of older workers have left their jobs involuntarily, with poor health an important reason for exit. Yet the significance of worker health for maintaining or limiting employment is not reflected in current policy architecture.This paper is supported by an Australian Research Council Linkage Project LP 130100227, which is led by Barbara Pocock, Carol T Kulik, Sara Charlesworth, and Lyndall Strazdins, in partnership with Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency and Women in Super. Lyndall Strazdins and Sara Charlesworth are supported by Australian Research Council Future Fellowships FT110100686 and FT120100346 respectively

Mothers and fathers with young children: paid employment, caring and wellbeing

In recent decades, the increasing employment rates of mothers combined with other changes in Australian society have had a major impact upon many aspects of family life. Despite widespread policy interest and community debate about the impact of this trend, a lack of nationally representative surveys that have a large sample of families with young children means that relatively little is known about how families with young children combine caring for children with participation in paid employment. 'Growing up in Australia': the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC) is a new study that provides information on over 10,000 children. In the first wave, there are approximately 5,000 infants and 5,000 4 to 5 year-old children and their families. With its detailed information on labour force status, job characteristics and measures of wellbeing of the children and parents, LSAC provides an opportunity to examine the different patterns of employment and the characteristics of jobs in which parents with young children are employed

Mothers and fathers with young children: paid employment, caring and wellbeing

The paper examines how the use of child care, the time parents spend with children, and parental wellbeing relate to parental employment. It looks at four themes: the labour force status and job characteristics of parents with young children; patterns of use of child care and how they vary according to parental employment status; the impact of parental employment on parenting and time spent with children; and the relationship between parental employment status and the wellbeing of parents

Health or harm? A cohort study of the importance of job quality in extended workforce participation by older adults

Abstract Background As people are living longer, they are being encouraged to work longer. While it is assumed that extended employment will be good for health, the evidence has been mixed. This study considers whether employment and job quality exert an influence on four indicators of health status in older workers. Methods Data for this study came from 836 older workers (440 men and 396 women) aged 50–59 years at baseline who participated in the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey. Using linear regression, we examine within-person change in self-rated, physical and mental health and one health behaviour (physical activity) at two time points over a nine year follow-up period. Results There were minimal differences in the way health changed for older adults who continued working compared to those who retired voluntarily. However, when we decomposed employment in terms of job quality, health outcomes diverged. Compared to voluntary retirees, older workers who had worked in good quality jobs reported marginally better self-rated health (0.14,−0.02–0.29); but did not differ in their physical (2.31,−1.09–5.72) or mental health (0.51,−1.84–2.87). In contrast, older workers who held poor quality jobs for most of the follow-up period declined in their self-rated (−1.13,−0.28 − –0.02), physical (−4.90, 8.52– − 1.29) and mental health (−4.67, 7.69– − 1.66) relative to voluntary retirees. Older workers who held poor quality jobs for just some of the follow-up period did not differ from voluntary retirees in terms of their health. However there was evidence of a linear relationship between length of exposure to poor quality jobs and decline in health outcomes. Conclusion Extended working lives mean that people will be ‘exposed’ to work for longer, and this exposure will occur at a life stage characterised by declining health for many. Our findings show that ensuring older workers have access to secure jobs which allow for control over work time, skill use and fair rewards will be essential if policy goals to boost participation and productivity, as well as reduce the health and care costs of the elderly, are to be met