In or out of reach? Long-term trends in the reach of health assessments in the Swedish occupational setting.

Abstract

Objectives: This study aimed to investigate the reach of a large-scale health assessment delivered by the occupational health service in Sweden for almost 30 years.

Methods: A total of 418 286 individuals who participated in a health assessment (Health Profile Assessment, HPA) between 1995-2021 were included. A comparative sample was obtained from Statistics Sweden, comprising the entire working population for each year (4 962 127-6 011 829 unique individuals per time period). Sociodemographic and work organization characteristics were compared between the HPA and comparative population for six different periods. Under- and overrepresented groups in the private and public sectors were identified using the most recent data (2015-2021).

Results: With negative per cent indicating underrepresentation, the most notable changes over time in representation in the HPA population compared to the comparative were observed for women (-1.2% to -12.8%), private sector employees (-9.4% to 14.9%), individuals with ≥3 years of employment (14.5% to 0.9%), in personal care (0.8% to -8.8%) and manufacturing (0.7% to 6.4%) occupations. Consistently overrepresented groups (median representation across periods) included individuals who had a single income source (6.3%) and were middle-aged (10.8%), born in Sweden (5.9%), associate professionals (8.7%), and employed in companies with high operating profit (17.9%) and low staff turnover (14.3%). Conversely, individuals with low income (-34.0%) and employed in small companies/organizations (-10.9%) were consistently underrepresented. Middle-aged women in education occupations were most underrepresented in the public sector, while in the private sector, it was young women in service and shop sales occupations.

Conclusions: This health assessment has reached many professionals, including hard-to-reach groups, but did not fully represents the Swedish workforce throughout the years.