There has been a growing interest in the health status of non-regular workers. We performed this study to examine the relationship between non-regular employment and health behaviors, mental health, and Quality of life (QOL). We analyzed 2013 Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey data and 1846 adults (aged 20∼60 years) were included. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed to identify the effects of employment type, work type, and work hours on health behaviors (medical exam, cancer screening, smoking, alcohol intake, exercise), mental health (stress, depressed mood), and QOL (EuroQol-5D (EQ-5D)). We observed that male non-regular workers were likely to take less medical check-up and cancer screening and to have more problems with usual activity domain of EQ-5D. Female non-regular workers also took less medical check-up, felt more stress and depression, and had significantly more problems with mobility, usual activity, and anxiety/depression domain of EQ-5D. The multivariate-adjusted Odds ratios(ORs) for not having medical check-up and cancer screening in male non-regular workers were 3.88 (95% confidence interval [CI], 2.58∼5.85) and 1.77 (1.19∼2.65), respectively. Female non-regular workers have significantly higher OR for having depressive mood (1.80, 1.06∼3.05) and having problems with usual activity (5.12, 1.06∼24.8), and anxiety/depression (2.08, 1.07∼4.04) domain of EQ-5D. There was no significant differences in poor health behavior between regular and non-regular workers, but female night shift workers have significantly higher OR for current smoking (2.85, 1.51∼5.35) compared with day workers. This study showed that non-regular employment was associated with worse health behavior, mental health, and QOL.
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