Skip to main content

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Public Health
Sec. Life-Course Epidemiology and Social Inequalities in Health
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1388093

Work-related socioeconomic determinants of health: evidence from educational mismatch in Italy

Provisionally accepted
Cristiana Abbafati Cristiana Abbafati 1*Aldo Rosano Aldo Rosano 2
  • 1 Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy
  • 2 Istituto nazionale per l’analisi delle politiche pubbliche (INAPP), Rome, Lazio, Italy

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    An educational mismatch is defined as the situation where the education qualifications of an employee do not match the qualifications required for the job they do. A mismatch can be vertical where the level of the employee's qualification is not the one required by the job. This study contributes to the literature on work-related social determinants of health, by carrying out the first assessment of the relationship between educational mismatch and health in Italy. Data come from PLUS, a national survey of labor supply. The risk of suffering from bad or very bad health associated with educational mismatch is investigated through a logistic regression model accounting for the socioeconomic context and occupation. Our findings show women are at greater risk of suffering from bad or very bad health than men, especially if under-educated. Our results show the need to address more research on work-related social determinants of health, which can represent a barrier to achieving health equity.

    Keywords: educational mismatch, Over and under-education, health equity, gender gap, Work related socioeconomic determinants

    Received: 19 Feb 2024; Accepted: 08 Jul 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Abbafati and Rosano. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Cristiana Abbafati, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.