Home and Workplace Neighborhood Socioeconomic Status and Behavior-related Health: A Within-individual Analysis

The influence of individual and home neighborhood socioeconomic status (SES) on health-related behaviors have been widely studied, but the majority of these studies have neglected the possible impact of the workplace neighborhood SES.

To examine within-individual associations between home and work place neighborhood SES and health-related behaviors in employed individuals.

We used participants from the Swedish Longitudinal Occupational Survey of Health who responded to a minimum of two surveys between 2012 and 2018. Data included 12,932 individuals with a total of 35,332 observations. We used fixed-effects analysis with conditional logistic regression to examine within-individual associations of home, workplace, as well as time-weighted home and workplace neighborhood SES index, with self-reported obesity, physical activity, smoking, excessive alcohol consumption, sedentary lifestyle, and disturbed sleep.

After adjustment for covariates, participants were more likely to engage in risky alcohol consumption when they worked in a workplace that was located in the highest SES area compared to time when they worked in a workplace that was located in the lowest SES area (adjusted odds ratios 1.98; 95% confidence interval: 1.12 to 3.49). There was an indication of an increased risk of obesity when individuals worked in the highest compared to the time when they worked in the lowest neighborhood SES area (1.71; 1.02-2.87). No associations were observed for the other outcomes.

These within-individual comparisons suggest that workplace neighborhood SES might have a role in health-related behaviors, particularly alcohol consumption.