Exploring Self-Employment and Cardiovascular Disease Risk among Hispanic Women

Examine the association between self-employment, cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors, and health outcomes among Hispanic women.

This observational study was conducted with data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (2003-2022) and a pooled cross-sectional study design to evaluate the association of self-employment with risk factors for CVD. The statistical models were weighted linear probability models that were adjusted for demographics, language, family structure, socioeconomic status, and health insurance.

Of the 165,609 working Hispanic women in the study, roughly 13% (20,946) were self-employed. Relative to working for wages or salary, self-employment was associated with a significant mean (95% confidence interval) decline in the predicted probability of reporting diabetes (-1.69% [-2.3%, -1.0%]), hypertension (-3.25% [-4.7%, -1.9%]), obesity (-5.92% [-7.5%, -4.7%]), binge drinking (-1.98% [-3.3%, -0.77%]), and poor health (-2.47% [-3.7%, -1.4%]) and an increase in the predicted probability of reporting exercise (8.33% [7.1%, 9.7%]).

Self-employment was negatively associated with several risk factors for CVD, relative to those for women working for wages. Work structure may have important implications for CVD risk among Hispanic women.