Three-quarters of prisoners (75.6%) planned to find future employment as labourers, compared with only 38.5% of LTU; 19.5% vs 44.2%, respectively, were looking for a subordinate role, and 4.9% vs 17.3% aspired to a management position.
The strongest hazards for not quitting smoking were associated with renters compared with those living in homes owned outright (HR: 0.64; 95% CI: 0.52-0.78), labourers compared with managers (HR: 0.65; 95% CI: 0.46-0.92), and 12-month mental illness (HR: 0.77; 95% CI: 0.65-0.91) or lifetime mental illness (HR: 0.77; 95% CI: 0.64-0.92).
The reasonable/high quality studies [ 36, 44, 45] suggested an increased risk of suicide in labourers compared to non-labourers [ 44, 45].
Proportions of participants in blue-collar jobs, including farmers and forestry labourers, were high compared with preceding studies.
For instance, when compared with wage labourers, waste pickers were more likely to complain of shoulder (OR 3.5; p<0.01), ankle (OR 2.9; p<0.05), hand (OR 2.1; p<0.05) and upper and lower back (each OR 1.9; p<0.05) MSDs.
The uninsured were more likely to be female, single, younger and less educated unskilled labourers with a lower monthly income compared with the insured.
Vermeiren et al 31 similarly examined occupation and reported that manual labourers had a recurrence rate of 31% compared with other professions (students, retired people and housewives; 24%).
In the age group of 40 59 years, sedentary workers had the highest prevalence of hypertension (48.3%) and obesity (43.9%), while nomads (hypertension/obesity; 19.6%/22.5%) and manual labourers (11.3%/20.8%) had a lower prevalence of hypertension compared with other workers (27.3 36.1%/20.1 61.1%) (ANOVA, p<0.0001).
His story is being compared with that of Dashrath Manjhi, a labourer from Bihar who spent 22 years building a road through a mountain, reportedly reducing the route between two districts by 42km.
Among the occupational categories, daily labourers had statistically significant lower odds of having HIV infection compared with non-working individuals (AOR=0.55; 95% CI (0.35 to 0.87)).
As vultures flew overhead, it was a forlorn sight, especially compared with a mural at the PCA's headquarters that shows the original Panama Canal swarming with labourers 100 years ago though some look more like slaves than employees.
