Self-employed Hispanic women report fewer cases of high blood pressure, obesity, diabetes, poor health, and binge drinking compared to those working for salary or wages, according to research published in the journal Ethnicity & Disease. The findings were announced on Apr. 8 by Dr. Kimberly Narain, assistant professor of medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and senior author of the study.
The study is significant because it suggests that work structure may play a role in cardiovascular disease risk among Hispanic women. "Hispanic women experience a disproportionate burden of heart disease compared to non-Hispanic women," said Narain, who also serves as director of Health Services and Health Optimization Research for the Iris Cantor-UCLA Women's Health Center. "This is the first study to link the structure of work with risks for heart disease among this group of women."
Researchers analyzed data from 2003-2022 collected by the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System. The analysis included responses from 165,600 Hispanic working women; about 13 percent (21,000) identified as self-employed rather than employed for wages or salary. The results showed that self-employed participants were less likely to report health problems associated with cardiovascular disease and were approximately 11 percent more likely to report exercising than their counterparts.
Narain said that differences in access to healthcare or income did not explain these outcomes: "In fact, the decrease in high blood pressure linked to self-employment was nearly as large as the decrease in high blood pressure linked to being in the highest income group," she said.
The researchers noted several limitations: reliance on self-reported outcomes which may be less reliable among ethnic minorities and people from lower socioeconomic backgrounds; definitions used for mental health did not fully match standard diagnostic criteria; and lack of data on specific occupations held by participants. The study design does not prove causality between self-employment and reduced cardiovascular risk but provides direction for future research.
"The next step in the research is to conduct studies that are able to better assess if the structure of work is a cause of higher heart disease risks among Hispanic women," Narain said.
Lisette Collins led this research along with co-author Dr. Frederick Ferguson from UCLA.
