1. Paid employment and Common Mental Disorders (CMD) in the UK
Gayan Perera,
King’s College London (IoPPN)
WHERL is an interdisciplinary consortium funded by the cross-research council Lifelong Health and Wellbeing (LLHW) programme under Extending Working Lives (ES/L002825/1)

2. Objective of WHerL
How has the relationship between working until and beyond State Pension Age (SPA) and health and psychological health changed overtime.

3. Objective
To investigate the association between employment status and Common Mental Disorder (CMD) in year old residents in England and its stability over time, taking advantage of three national mental health surveys carried out over a 14 year period.

4. Employment and Increase in older population
Number of people of normal pension age and above who remain in work almost doubled to a total of 1.4 million between the years 1993 and 2011 in England. (ONS, 2012)
Percentage of older People remaining in the workforce has also increased within this time period, from 7.6% in 1993 to 12.0% in (ONS, 2012)

5. Effect of paid work on health and well-being in later life
Some studies suggest paid employment among older people is beneficial for health and well-being (Adam et al., 2007; Rohwedder and Willis, 2010; Behnke, 2012; Bonsang et al., 2012; Calvo et al., 2013)
Some suggest that it is detrimental (Coe and Zamarro, 2011) and some that there is no significant or meaningful relationship (Coe and Lindeboom, 2008; Coe and Zamarro, 2011; Behnke, 2012; Calvo et al., 2013).

6. Method
Data: British National Surveys of Psychiatric Morbidity of 1993, 2000 and 2007
Exposure: Paid employment status
Outcome: CMD the primary outcome – both ascertained identically in all three surveys (CMD from the revised Clinical Interview Schedule)
Statistics: Multivariable logistic regression

7. Description of the sample by employment status and year of survey
1993 (n=2,385)
2000 (n=1,871)
2007 (n=1,771)
Variable
In paid Employment
Not in paid Employment
Number
1279
1169
1123
751
1111
668
CMD present
126 (9.9)
195 (16.7)
130 (11.6)
189 (25.2)
134 (12.1)
155 (23.2)
Reason for non-employment
Health-related non-employment
265 (22.7)
232 (30.9)
170 (25.4)
Other reason
904 (77.3)
519 (69.1)
498 (74.6)
Marital status
Divorced/separated
158 (12.4)
156 (13.4)
223 (19.9)
167 (22.2)
169 (15.2)
124 (18.6)
Married/cohabiting
929 (73.0)
766 (65.9)
756 (67.3)
434 (57.8)
795 (71.6)
414 (62.0)
Single
83 (6.5)
101 (8.7)
85 (7.6)
55 (7.3)
79 (7.1)
61 (9.1)
Widowed
102 (8.0)
140 (12.0)
59 (5.3)
95 (12.6)
68 (6.1)
69 (10.3)

8. Description of the sample by employment status and year of survey
1993 (n=2,385)
2000 (n=1,871)
2007 (n=1,771)
Variable
In paid Employment
Not in paid Employment
Highest qualification
A-level or above
280 (21.9)
124 (10.6)
331 (29.5)
133 (17.7)
477 (43.1)
161 (24.3)
GCSE/GCE/O-level/other
521 (40.7)
437 (37.4)
362 (32.2)
227 (30.2)
347 (31.3)
195 (29.4)
No qualifications
478 (37.4)
608 (52.0)
430 (38.3)
391 (52.1)
283 (25.6)
307 (46.3)
Social class by occupation
Professional/managerial/clerical
658 (51.4)
539 (46.1)
695 (61.9)
396 (52.7)
709 (63.8)
375 (56.1)
Skilled/partly skilled
558 (43.6)
541 (46.3)
381 (33.9)
293 (39.0)
344 (31.0)
242 (36.2)
Unskilled
63 (4.9)
89 (7.6)
47 (4.2)
62 (8.3)
58 (5.2)
51 (7.6)

9. Description of the sample by employment status and year of survey
1993 (n=2,385)
2000 (n=1,871)
2007 (n=1,771)
Variable
paid Employment
Non-paid
Employment
Housing tenure
Owned with a mortgage
616 (48.2)
279 (23.9)
552 (49.2)
161 (21.5)
471 (42.6)
123 (18.4)
Owned outright
417 (32.6)
518 (44.3)
434 (38.6)
369 (49.3)
484 (43.8)
335 (50.2)
Private or other renter
82 (6.4)
49 (4.2)
44 (3.9)
31 (4.1)
67 (6.1)
35 (5.2)
Social housing
164 (12.8)
323 (27.6)
93 (8.3)
187 (25.0)
83 (7.5)
174 (26.1)
Serious debt in the last year
51 (4.0)
48 (4.1)
49 (4.4)
72 (9.6)
37 (3.3)
53 (7.9)
Seen a family doctor
823 (64.3)
883 (75.5)
741 (66.0)
559 (74.4)
717 (64.5)
498 (74.6)
Smoking status
No smoker
315 (24.6)
362 (31.0)
246 (21.9)
219 (29.2)
217 (19.5)
167 (25.0)
Ex-smoker
639 (50.0)
521 (44.6)
633 (56.4)
359 (47.8)
553 (49.8)
306 (45.8)
Current smoker
325 (25.4)
286 (24.5)
244 (21.7)
173 (23.0)
341 (30.7)
195 (29.2)
At-least one ADL impaired
191 (14.9)
427 (36.5)
157 (14.0)
330 (43.9)
327 (29.4)
351 (52.5)

10. Odds ratios of ‘reason for non-employment’ association with CMD adjusted for various factors for 3 surveys
1993 (n=2,385)
2000 (n=1,871)
2007 (n=1,771)
Adjustments
Reason for non-employment OR
P value
Model 1: Age, gender and marital status
In paid employment
Ref
Health
6.27 ( )
<0.001
8.72 ( )
7.28 ( )
Other
1.30 ( )
0.09
1.25 ( )
0.2
1.48 ( )
0.02
Model 2: Model 1+ education, social class, housing tenure and serious debt
5.83 ( )
7.01 ( )
5.30 ( )
1.30 ( )
1.24 ( )
0.25
1.29 ( )
0.16
Model 3: Model 2+ smoking status, physical health consultation and ADL impairment
3.05 ( )
3.56 ( )
2.80 ( )
1.16 ( )
0.35
1.13 ( )
0.49
1.09 ( )
0.64

11. Summary of findings
The prevalence of CMD was higher in people not in paid employment for health reasons but was not associated with non-employment for other reasons.
Associations had been relatively stable in strength from 1993 to 2007.

12. Policy implications
Government and employers should provide support for those are willing to work longer.
Even during economic prosperous times (year 2000), association between non-employment and CMD is high.

13. www.wherl.ac.uk Thank you Paper submitted to Psychological Medicine.
Authors: Gayan Perera1, Giorgio Di Gessa2, Laurie M. Corna2, Karen Glaser2, Robert Stewart1
1Department of Psychological Medicine, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College London, London, United Kingdom
2Institute of Gerontology, Department of Social Science, Health & Medicine, King’s College London, London, United Kingdom