Citation

van der Put AC, Mandemakers JJ, de Wit JBF, Van Der Lippe T. SSM Popul. Health 2020; 10: e100543.

Affiliation

Department of Sociology, Utrecht University, Padualaan 14, 3584 CH, Utrecht, the Netherlands.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2020, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.ssmph.2020.100543

PMID

32021901

PMCID

PMC6994707

Abstract

It is well-documented that higher educated employees have better health than the lower educated. The workplace has been put forward as a contributor to this inequality. We extend previous work on workplace characteristics that could influence employee health by asking to what extent workplace health promotion (WHP) can account for the relation between education and health. Two ways in which WHP may relate to health inequalities are addressed: higher educated employees may be more likely to use WHP than lower educated employees and the effect of WHP on health may be stronger for higher educated than for lower educated employees. Using data from the European Sustainable Workforce Survey which contains information on over 11000 employees in 259 organisations, we test whether three types of WHP mediate or moderate the relation between education and health: healthy menus, sports facilities and health checks. We find that higher educated employees are in better health and that use of WHP positively relates to health. Use of healthy menus and sports facilities in the workplace can contribute to increasing health inequalities, as lower educated employees are less likely to make use of these. Health checks could contribute to diminishing health inequalities, as lower educated employees are more likely to use them compared to higher educated employees. The effect of WHP is not contingent on education. We advise stimulating lower educated employees to make more use of WHP, which can contribute to decreasing health inequalities.

© 2020 The Authors.

Language: en

Keywords

Education; Europe; Health inequalities; Mediation; Moderation; Multilevel structural equation modelling; Self-rated health; Worksite health promotion