# Precarious Employment as a Determinant of Overweight and Cardiometabolic Risk

> **NIH NIH R00** · UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT CHICAGO · 2022 · $249,000

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
Reducing obesity disparities could greatly reduce health disparities by race/ethnicity for the leading cause of
death in the U.S., cardiovascular disease (CVD). Therefore, it is critical to understand the systemic causes of
disparities in obesity prevalence between racial/ethnic minority adults and children, compared to their white
counterparts. “Precarious employment,” which is often characterized by low wages, limited fringe benefits,
shorter tenure, and irregular hours, making employment risky and stressful for the worker, is disproportionately
represented among racial/ethnic minorities. Precarious employment may increase body mass index through
multiple mechanisms including, a biological stress response. Determining the extent to which precarious
employment is a determinate of overweight and cardiometabolic risk is vitally important for mitigating disparities
in chronic disease risk and informing structural approaches for improving population health in the U.S. The
proposed work in this Pathway to Independence Award builds upon my current program of research investigating
the role of employment status and conditions in overweight risk and enhances it by adding training in areas that
are critical to accomplishing my career goal: establishing an independent research program that rigorously
investigates the role of employment status and conditions as a determinate of racial and ethnic disparities in
chronic disease risk. The training portion of this project includes coursework, guided readings, and career-
building activities to gain skills in three areas: 1) causal inference methodologies; 2) the study of stress and CVD,
and 3) racial/ethnic health disparities. The newly acquired skills and knowledge obtained during the training
phase of this award will be applied in the research phase of the study. The research phase of the study aims to
provide novel insights into the impacts of precarious employment on overweight and cardiometabolic risk, and
to investigate the pathways of these relationships. We will leverage three unique datasets, two racially/ethnically
diverse longitudinal cohorts with complementary employment and biological data (National Longitudinal Survey
of Youth and National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health), and objective data on work activities
and organization (Occupational Information Network Database), to accomplish the following specific aims: 1)
determine the extent to which precarious employment affects overweight/obesity risk among adults and children
in the U.S. and examine whether any association varies by race/ethnicity; 2) determine whether biological stress
mediates the association between precarious employment and BMI and overweight/obesity risk among adults;
3) determine whether precarious employment is associated with cardiometabolic risk biomarkers among adults
and examine whether any association varies by race/ethnicity; and 3a) determine whether overweight/obesity
and biological s...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10317032
- **Project number:** 5R00MD012807-05
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT CHICAGO
- **Principal Investigator:** Vanessa Marie Oddo
- **Activity code:** R00 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $249,000
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2018-08-14 → 2023-12-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10317032

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10317032, Precarious Employment as a Determinant of Overweight and Cardiometabolic Risk (5R00MD012807-05). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10317032. Licensed CC0.

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