Assessing the contribution of unstable employment to mortality in posttransition Russia: prospective individual-level analyses from the Russian longitudinal monitoring survey

Abstract

Objectives: We used the Russia Longitudinal Monitoring Survey (RLMS) to investigate associations between employment, socioeconomic position, and mortality.

Methods: Data were from working-age respondents in 8 rounds (1994-2003) of the RLMS. We measured associations between education, occupation, unemployment, and insecure employment and mortality with Cox proportional hazards analyses.

Results: Of 4465 men and 4158 women who were currently employed, 251 men and 34 women died. A third of employed respondents experienced wage arrears, and 10% experienced compulsory leave and payment in consumer goods. Insecure employment, more common among the less-educated and manual workers, fluctuated with macroeconomic measures. Mortality was significantly associated with payment in consumer goods among men (hazard ratio [HR] = 1.46; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.03, 2.07), compulsory unpaid leave among women (HR = 3.79; 95% CI = 1.82, 7.88), and male unemployment (HR = 1.88; 95% CI = 1.38, 2.55). Associations with death within 1 year of entry were generally somewhat stronger than the association with mortality over the whole study period.

Conclusions: Unemployment and job insecurity predicted mortality, suggesting that they contributed to Russia's high mortality during the transition from communism.

FIGURE 1

Changes in employment-related variables between years in employed people of working age: Russia Longitudinal Monitoring Survey, 1994–2003.