Measuring precarity and its impact on health

How do researchers measure the impact of precarious work on health indicators, including physical and mental health? How do they tease out the interaction between poverty, precarious employment and health outcomes? In this plenary, Dr. Wayne Lewchuk talks about the survey data collected by the Poverty and Employment Precarity in Southern Ontario (PEPSO) research group in 2011 and 2014. He compares the Employment Precarity Index developed by this group with the data collected by Statistics Canada on temporary employment, and highlights in particular how crude measures of precarity can lead to misleading conclusions regarding the impact of insecure employment on health outcomes.