Scandinavian journal of work, environment & health最新文献

Objectives: This study aimed to quantify the duration of work participation and reasons for working years lost, according to gender and educational attainment, among a Norwegian population.

Methods: Register data on labor market attachment between 2000-2015 were obtained from Statistics Norway. We included five cohorts: individuals turning 20 (N=323 333), 30 (N=386 006), 40 (N=388 962), 50 (N=358 745), and 60 years (N=284 425) between 1 January 2000 and 31 December 2005. Individuals were followed for ten years. Data completeness allowed calculation of the average time spent in work and years lost to health-related absences and non-employment states per cohort. Changes in state probabilities over time were also depicted. Mean differences between genders and educational levels, and corresponding 95% confidence intervals were based on 1000 bootstrap samples.

Results: Both genders spent most time in work; however, per cohort, women worked approximately one year less than men. As cohorts aged, main reasons for working years lost changed from education and economic inactivity to sickness absence and disability pensioning; this trend was stronger for women than men. Individuals with a low education spent fewer years in work and more years in sickness absence and disability pensioning than highly educated peers. This difference tended to be larger for women and older cohorts.

Conclusions: Per cohort, women participated one year less in work than men and, depending on age, spent more time in education, economic inactivity, sickness absence, and disability pensioning. Stronger educational gradients were seen for work and health-related absences for older cohorts and women.

Objectives: Quick returns (<11 hours of rest between shifts) have been associated with shortened sleep length and increased sleepiness, but previous efforts have failed to find effects on sleep quality or stress. A shortcoming of most previous research has been the reliance on subjective measures of sleep. The aim of this study was to combine diary and actigraphy data to investigate intra-individual differences in sleep length, sleep quality, sleepiness, and stress during quick returns compared to day-day transitions.

Methods: Of 225 nurses and assistant nurses who wore actigraphy wristbands and kept a diary of work and sleep for seven days, a subsample of 90 individuals with one observation of both a quick return and a control condition (day-day transition) was extracted. Sleep quality was assessed with actigraphy data on sleep fragmentation and subjective ratings of perceived sleep quality. Stress and sleepiness levels were rated every third hour throughout the day. Shifts were identified from self-reported working hours. Data was analyzed in multilevel models.

Results: Quick returns were associated with 1 hour shorter sleep length [95% confidence interval (CI) -1.23- -0.81], reduced subjective sleep quality (-0.49, 95% CI -0.69- -0.31), increased anxiety at bedtime (-0.38, 95% CI -0.69- -0.08) and increased worktime sleepiness (0.45, 95%CI 0.22- 0.71), compared to day-day transitions. Sleep fragmentation and stress ratings did not differ between conditions.

Conclusions: The findings of impaired sleep and increased sleepiness highlight the need for caution when scheduling shift combinations with quick returns.

Objective: Leisure-time physical activity (PA) has been hypothesized to reduce the likelihood of occupational injuries, but it is unclear whether this association varies between workplace and commuting injuries. The aim of this study was to examine the association between PA and risk of workplace and commuting injuries.

Methods: Data were derived from the Finnish Public Sector study including 82 716 person-observations (48 116 participants). PA was requested repeatedly in four questionnaire surveys between 2000-2012. The average level of PA from two subsequent questionnaires was used to assess long-term PA. To obtain a 1-year incidence of injuries, participants were linked to occupational injury records from the national register. Logistic regression analysis with generalized estimating equations was used to examine the association between PA and injury risk. The analysis was adjusted for age, sex, education, work schedule, job demand, sleep difficulties, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and depression for workplace and commuting injuries, and workplace injuries were additionally adjusted for physical heaviness of an occupation and injury risk by occupation.

Results: Higher level of PA was associated with a lower risk of workplace injuries compared to inactive participants [odds ratio (OR) 0.85, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.73-0.98]. This association was most marked in the ≥50-year-old age group (OR 0.78, 95% CI 0.64-0.99). No association between the PA and the risk for commuting injuries was observed.

Conclusion: Higher PA is associated with lower risk of workplace injuries particularly among older employees.

Objective: The Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment & Health (SJWEH) was established half a century ago. This paper provides an overview of research on musculoskeletal disorders (MSD) published over these 50 years. Three themes are described: risk assessment, interventions to prevent work-related MSD, and interventions to support work participation. Finally, implications for future research are highlighted.

Methods: A systematic literature search was performed for all papers on MSD published in SJWEH. Each paper was coded on several criteria including research topic, type of MSD, risk factor(s), and number of citations. Findings were tabulated, and discussions within the author team defined the main results and future research directions.

Results: The search resulted in 1056 papers, of which 474 were included. The most reported-on MSD was low-back pain (LBP, 18%) and the most reported-on work-related risk factors were physically demanding work (14%) and psychosocial factors (12%). Research has contributed to improving case definitions, refining work-related exposure criteria, and recognizing the varying importance of physical and psychosocial factors across different MSD. Research on the association between work-related risk factors and LBP continues to emerge. Effective interventions for prevention of MSD are characterised by sufficient exposure reduction, while supporting work participation requires integrating health care, with multidisciplinary actions directed at factors involving the worker, employer, and workplace.

Conclusion: Research has provided valuable insights into risk assessment, interventions for preventing work-related MSD, and supporting work participation. Intervention studies remain warranted and new areas include adopting whole-system approaches to prevent work-related MSD and promoting the concept of musculoskeletal health.

Objectives: Previous studies established a causal relationship between occupational benzene exposure and acute myeloid leukemia (AML). However, mixed results have been reported for associations between benzene exposure and other myeloid and lymphoid malignancies. Our work examined whether occupational benzene exposure is associated with increased mortality from overall lymphohaematopoietic (LH) cancer and major subtypes.

Methods: Mortality records were linked to a Swiss census-based cohort from two national censuses in 1990 and 2000. Cases were defined as having any LH cancers registered in death certificates. We assessed occupational exposure by applying a quantitative benzene job-exposure matrix (BEN-JEM) to census-reported occupations. Exposure was calculated as the products of exposure proportions and levels (P × L). Cox proportional hazards models were used to calculate LH cancer death hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) associated with benzene exposure, continuously and in ordinal categories.

Results: Our study included approximately 2.97 million persons and 13 415 LH cancer cases, including 3055 cases with benzene exposure. We observed increased mortality risks per unit (P × L) increase in continuous benzene exposure for AML (HR 1.03, 95% CI 1.00-1.06) and diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (HR 1.09, 95% CI 1.04-1.14). When exposure was assessed categorically, increasing trends in risks were observed with increasing benzene exposure for AML (P=0.04), diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (P=0.02), and follicular lymphoma (P=0.05).

Conclusion: In a national cohort from Switzerland, we found that occupational exposure to benzene is associated with elevated mortality risks for AML, diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, and possibly follicular lymphoma.

Objective: This study aimed to explore the association between occupational psychosocial exposures and chronic low-back pain (LBP) by conducting a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Methods: The research protocol was registered in PROSPERO. A systematic literature search was performed in six databases, identifying articles complying with predefined inclusion criteria. In our PECOS, we defined outcome as chronic LBP ≥3 months, exposures as occupational psychosocial exposures, and restricted study design to case-control and cohort studies. Two authors independently excluded articles, extracted data, assessed risk of bias, and graded evidence levels. Meta-analyses were performed using random-effects models.

Results: The 20 included articles encompassed six different occupational psychosocial exposures (job control, demand, strain, support, stress, and satisfaction), only 1 had low risk of bias. For all occupational psychosocial exposures, odds ratios ranged from 0.8 to 1.1. Sensitivity analyses based on risk of bias was conducted for two outcomes ie, job control and job demand, finding no differences between high and low-to-moderate risk of bias studies. Using GRADE, we found a very low level of evidence of the association for all occupational psychosocial exposures.

Conclusion: In this study, we found no association between occupational psychosocial exposures and chronic LBP. However, it is important to underline that the level of evidence was very low. High quality studies are highly warranted.

Objectives: Both high and low levels of occupational physical activity are associated with back pain. Thus, there might be a "sweet- and sour-spot" of occupational physical activity for back pain. Our aim was to investigate if there exists an occupational physical activity "sweet- (lowest risk) and sour-spot" (highest risk) for back pain.

Methods: A total of 396 eldercare workers from 20 Danish nursing homes participated. Occupational physical activity was measured between 1-4 working days using thigh-worn accelerometry. Back pain intensity was reported monthly on a scale from 0-10 over 1-year. A zero-inflated mixed-effects model was developed regressing occupational physical activity against back pain, adjusted for confounders. The "sweet- and sour-spot" were defined as the occupational physical activity compositions (sitting, standing, light, and moderate-to-vigorous) associated with the 5% lowest and highest risk for back pain, respectively.

Results: The composition associated with the lowest risk of back pain - the "sweet-spot"- consisted of 71% worktime spent sitting, 18% spent standing, 5% spent on light physical activity and 6% spent on moderate-to-vigorous physical activity. The composition associated with highest risk for back pain -the "sour-spot"- consisted of 8% worktime spent sitting, 66% spent standing, 4% spent on light physical activity, and 21% spent on moderate-to-vigorous physical activity.

Conclusions: The "sweet-spot" of occupational physical activity for back pain among eldercare workers involves more sitting and light physical activity time, while the "sour-spot" involves more standing and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity time. Research on the occupational physical activity "sweet- and sour-spot" is needed.

Objectives: This study aimed to compare the risk of labor market marginalization among refugees across different host countries of resettlement and examine the moderating role of birth country and length of stay on these associations.

Methods: Cohorts of refugees and native-born individuals aged 19-60 in Sweden (N=3 605 949, 3.5% refugees) and Norway (N=1 784 861, 1.7% refugees) were followed during 2010-2016. Rates (per 1000 person-years) of long-term unemployment, long-term sickness absence, and disability pension were estimated for refugees and the host populations. Cox regression models estimated crude and adjusted (for sex, age, educational level, and civil status) hazard ratio (HR_adj) for refugees compared to their respective host population, with 95% confidence intervals (CI). Analyses were also stratified by birth country and length of stay.

Results: Refugees in Norway and Sweden had a higher incidence of labor market marginalization compared to their host population. Refugees in Sweden had a comparatively lower relative risk of long-term unemployment but higher risk of disability pension (HR_adj 3.44, 95% CI, 3.38-3.50 and HR_adj 2.45, 2.35-2.56, respectively) than refugees in Norway (HR_adj 3.70, 3.58-3.82 and HR_adj 1.57, 1.49-1.66, respectively). These relative risks varied when stratifying by birth country. A shorter length of stay was associated with a higher risk of long-term unemployment and a lower risk of disability pension, with a stronger gradient in Sweden than in Norway.

Conclusions: The relative risk of labor market marginalization varied by the refugees' birth country but followed similar trends in Sweden and Norway. Although speculative, these findings may hint at non-structural factors related to the refugee experience playing a more important role than host country structural factors for the risk of labor market marginalization among refugees. Future research, including host countries with more variability in structural factors, is required to further investigate these associations. The higher risk of long-term unemployment among refugees with shorter length of stay indicates a need for more efficient labor market integration policies for newly-arrived refugees.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to examine the mediating effect of the psychosocial work environment on the association between precarious employment (PE) and increased risk of common mental disorders (CMD), substance use disorders and suicide attempts.

Methods: This longitudinal register-study was based on the working population of Sweden, aged 25-60 years in 2005 (N=2 552 589). Mediation analyses based on a decomposition of counterfactual effects were used to estimate the indirect effect of psychosocial risk factors (PRF) (mediators, measured in 2005) on the association between PE (exposure, measured in 2005) and the first diagnosis of CMD, substance use disorders, and suicide attempts occurring over 2006-2017.

Results: The decomposition of effects showed that the indirect effect of the PRF is practically null for the three outcomes considered, among both sexes. PE increased the odds of being diagnosed with CMD, substance use disorders, and suicide attempts, among both men and women. After adjusting for PE, low job control increased the odds of all three outcomes among both sexes, while high job demands decreased the odds of CMD among women. High job strain increased the odds of CMD and suicide attempts among men, while passive job increased the odds of all three outcomes among women.

Conclusion: The results of this study did not provide evidence for the hypothesis that psychosocial risks could be the pathways linking precarious employment with workers` mental health. Future studies in different social contexts and labour markets are needed.

Objectives: This study aims to investigate the extent to which low job control and heavy physical workload in middle age explain educational differences in all-cause and ischemic heart disease (IHD) mortality while accounting for important confounding factors.

Methods: The study is based on a register-linked cohort of men who were conscripted into the Swedish military at around the age of 18 in 1969/1970 and were alive and registered in Sweden in 2005 (N=46 565). Cox proportional hazards regression models were built to estimate educational differences in all-cause and IHD mortality and the extent to which this was explained by physical workload and job control around age 55 by calculating the reduction in hazard ratio (HR) after adjustments. Indicators of health, health behavior, and other factors measured during conscription were accounted for.

Results: We found a clear educational gradient for all-cause and IHD mortality (HR 2.07 and 2.47, respectively, for the lowest compared to the highest education level). A substantial part was explained by the differential distribution of the confounding factors. However, work-related factors, especially high physical workload, also played important explanatory roles.

Conclusion: Even after accounting for earlier life factors, low job control and especially high physical workload seem to be important mechanistic factors in explaining educational inequalities in all-cause and IHD mortality. It is therefore important to find ways to reduce physical workload and increase job control in order to decrease inequalities in mortality.