A question of balance: health behaviour and work context among male Glaswegians

Abstract

Discussion of the persistence of social class inequalities in health has led to greater interest being paid to differences between the classes in lay health beliefs. Recent work on lay health beliefs, however, has mainly viewed social class as a proxy for wider aspects of lifestyle and paid less attention to its occupational component. Part of this can be explained by its predominant focus on the health beliefs of women. This paper remedies this imbalance by focusing on male Glaswegians' perceptions of the health effects of their occupations. It shows that not only were respondents very aware of the influence their jobs had on their health but that they also took action to redress the balance, either by compensating for such effects or controlling their work environment to minimise their influence. Respondents' degree of commitment to their work also had a direct bearing on their coping styles. Although traditional occupational class measures were found to obscure much of how occupation influences health, unskilled and semi‐skilled workers did suffer the greatest limitations in coping with the health effects of work. Copyright © 1992, Wiley Blackwell. All rights reserved