Association between work situation and life satisfaction during the COVID-19 pandemic: prospective cohort study in Norway
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Abstract
To estimate the impact of being laid off from work, having to work from home or having been diagnosed with COVID-19 on self-reported satisfaction with life.
Design
Nationwide population-based cohort study.
Setting
Norway.
Participants
We followed more than 80 000 participants in an ongoing cohort study, the Norwegian Mother, Father and Child Cohort Study (MoBa), during the COVID-19 pandemic. We analysed current life satisfaction in April and again in September/October 2020 for subjects whose work situation and infection status had changed.
Main outcome measures
Self-reported satisfaction with life, using a scale from 0 (worst) to 10 (best). We analysed the scale both continuously and as a binary variable (<or ≥6).
Results
Temporary and permanent layoffs, working from a home-based office, and getting a COVID-19 diagnosis were all associated with modestly, but significantly lower concurrent life satisfaction, both in the total on a population level and for subjects experiencing a change in job status between spring and autumn. The associations with change in work situation were stronger for men. For men with permanent job loss, the adjusted odds ratio (OR) for low life satisfaction (<6) was 3.2 (95% CI 2.4 to 4.2) in April and 4.9 (95% CI 3.5 to 6.9) in autumn. Among all, a suspected or confirmed COVID-19 diagnosis was associated with an adjusted OR for low life satisfaction of 1.9 (95% CI 1.6 to 2.3) in spring. The strength of associations between work situation and life satisfaction did not vary much across socio-economic strata, but layoffs were more common among those with low education.
Conclusion
Layoffs, home office and infection status had clear impact on the quality of life as measured with a global life satisfaction scale. These findings suggest that social differentials in quality of life, are increasing during the pandemic.
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SciScore for 10.1101/2020.12.16.20248321: (What is this?)
Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.
Table 1: Rigor
Institutional Review Board Statement IRB: The current sub-study was approved by The Regional Committee for Medical and Health Research Ethics, South East Norway C, no. 127708. Participants: Since March 2020, MoBa parents, now aged 30 to 65 years, have been invited to answer short mobile-phone questionnaires every 14 days regarding symptoms related to COVID-19, chronic illnesses, job situation, life satisfaction, and more. Randomization not detected. Blinding not detected. Power Analysis not detected. Sex as a biological variable Study design: The Norwegian Mother, Father and Child Cohort Study (MoBa)(10) is an ongoing nationwide cohort study in which 95,000 pregnant women and 75,000 partners were … SciScore for 10.1101/2020.12.16.20248321: (What is this?)
Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.
Table 1: Rigor
Institutional Review Board Statement IRB: The current sub-study was approved by The Regional Committee for Medical and Health Research Ethics, South East Norway C, no. 127708. Participants: Since March 2020, MoBa parents, now aged 30 to 65 years, have been invited to answer short mobile-phone questionnaires every 14 days regarding symptoms related to COVID-19, chronic illnesses, job situation, life satisfaction, and more. Randomization not detected. Blinding not detected. Power Analysis not detected. Sex as a biological variable Study design: The Norwegian Mother, Father and Child Cohort Study (MoBa)(10) is an ongoing nationwide cohort study in which 95,000 pregnant women and 75,000 partners were recruited between 1999 and 2008. Table 2: Resources
No key resources detected.
Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).
Results from LimitationRecognizer: An explicit section about the limitations of the techniques employed in this study was not found. We encourage authors to address study limitations.Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.
Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.
Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.
Results from rtransparent:- Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
- Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
- No protocol registration statement was detected.
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