Volume 16, Number 2—February 2010
Research
Employment and Compliance with Pandemic Influenza Mitigation Recommendations
, Robert J. Blendon, and Kasisomayajula Viswanath
Table 3
Likelihood of compliance with work-related pandemic influenza isolation strategies, by employment-related constraints and sociodemographics*
| Variable | Referent | Likelihood,† OR (95% CI) |
|||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lose job or business, n = 928‡ | Serious financial problems |
||||
| 7–10 d, n = 927§ | 1 mo, n = 754¶ | 3 mo, n = 472# | |||
| Employment-related constraints | |||||
| Unable to work from home for 1 mo | Able | 0.99 (0.63–1.56) | 1.57 (1.02–2.51)** | 1.91 (1.30–2.79)†† | 1.65 (1.06–2.52)** |
| Would not be paid if kept from work | Paid | 4.72 (2.94–7.57)†† | 3.23 (2.03–5.13)†† | 2.93 (2.07–4.14)†† | 1.75 (1.14–2.62)‡‡ |
| Self-employed |
Works for someone else |
1.09 (0.64–1.85) |
2.09 (1.25–3.49)‡‡ |
0.68 (0.42–1.14) |
0.66 (0.38–1.16) |
| Sociodemographic characteristics | |||||
| Income | >$75,000 | ||||
| <$30,000 | 4.31 (2.43–7.63)†† | 3.26 (1.85–5.75)†† | 3.29 (1.78–6.05)†† | 3.52 (1.38–8.98)‡‡ | |
| $30,000–$49,000 | 1.70 (1.01–3.02)** | 1.57 (0.93–2.64) | 2.93 (1.81–4.75)†† | 1.46 (0.79–2.69) | |
| $50,000–$74,000 | 2.08 (1.25–3.48)‡‡ | 1.09 (0.64–1.84) | 1.89 (1.25–2.88)‡‡ | 1.27 (0.78–2.07) | |
| Urban residence | Rural | 1.66 (1.07–2.56)** | 1.30 (0.84–2.01) | 1.14 (0.77–1.68) | 0.66 (0.41–1.06) |
| Education | College | ||||
| Less than HS | 2.40 (0.84–6.80) | 1.73 (0.62–4.80) | 1.24 (0.36–4.28) | 0.45 (0.06–3.29) | |
| HS graduate or HS plus technical school | 2.03 (1.17–3.51)‡‡ | 1.62 (0.95–2.75) | 1.17 (0.69–1.99) | 0.41 (0.20–1.07) | |
| Some college | 1.15 (0.63–2.05) | 1.25 (0.73–2.14) | 0.89 (0.55–1.42) | 0.71 (0.38–1.31) | |
| Race/Ethnicity | White | ||||
| African-American | 1.74 (0.92–3.29) | 0.56 (0.26–1.18) | 1.51 (0.77–2.95) | 0.73 (0.31–1.70) | |
| Hispanic | 1.55 (0.83–2.88) | 0.65 (0.32–1.34) | 0.74 (0.37–1.48) | 1.52 (0.65–3.57) | |
| Other | 2.23 (0.92–5.43) | 1.22 (0.45–3.26) | 0.71 (0.27–1.86) | 0.81 (0.29–2.31) | |
| Age, y | >51 | ||||
| 18–30 | 1.99 (1.09–3.66)** | 1.08 (0.56–2.05) | 0.73 (0.40–1.32) | 1.54 (0.75–3.15) | |
| 31–50 | 1.09 (0.71–1.71) | 1.49 (0.96–2.33) | 1.04 (0.71–1.53) | 1.38 (0.88–2.16) | |
| Gender | F | 0.77 (0.53–1.13) | 0.84 (0.57–1.22) | 1.07 (0.76–1.51) | 1.07 (0.72–1.61) |
| Good health status | Poor health | 0.58 (0.29–1.13) | 0.50 (0.25–0.97)** | 0.96 (0.40–2.29) | 0.60 (0.22–1.69) |
| Knowledge of pandemic
influenza |
Never heard of |
0.59 (0.37–0.96) |
0.79 (0.49–1.30) |
1.23 (0.73–2.06) |
1.02 (0.53–1.94) |
| –2LL | 735.72 | 740.38 | 860.05 | 605.98 | |
*Multivariable fitted logistic regression models describing the odds that some groups may be less able than identified referent groups to comply with pandemic influenza mitigation strategies that require voluntary isolation from work. All estimates are weighted and controlled for age, race/ethnicity, education, gender, self-reported health status, and self-reported knowledge of pandemic influenza. OR, odds ratio; CI, confidence interval; HS, high school; LL, log likelihood. Boldface indicates significance at p<0.05.
†Response of persons employed full or part time to “If pandemic influenza remained in your community for some time, health officials might recommend that people stay home from work so they do not catch or spread the disease.”
‡I or a member of my household would lose job or business as a result of having to stay home for 7–10 days.
§I or a member of my household would have serious financial problems if I stayed away from work for the following period of time.
¶Split sample; question asked only of those who responded “no” or “don’t know” to financial problems after 7–10 days.
#Split sample; question asked only of those who responded “no” or “don’t know” to financial problems after 1 month.
**p<0.05.
††p<0.0001.
‡‡p<0.01.