Can a Healthy Lifestyle Prevent Disability Pension among Female Healthcare Workers with Good and Poor Self-Rated Health? Prospective Cohort Study with 11-Year Register Follow-Up.

BACKGROUND: Our purpose was to investigate whether healthy lifestyle habits prevent disability pension among female healthcare workers. METHODS: We conducted a prospective cohort study with an 11-year register follow-up in which 8159 female healthcare workers from Denmark completed a questionnaire concerning self-rated health, work environment, leisure-time physical activity (LTPA), smoking, and body mass index (BMI). Data on disability benefit payments were obtained from the Danish Register for Evaluation of Marginalization during an 11-year follow-up. Potential confounders included age, occupational education, psychosocial work factors, and physical exertion during work. RESULTS: Among workers in good health at baseline, smoking, obesity, and low levels of LTPA were risk factors for disability pension during 11-year follow-up. Among workers with poor health, only low levels of physical activity were a risk factor for disability pension. CONCLUSIONS: This underscores the importance of a healthy lifestyle, specially being physically active, for preventing premature exit from the labor market in female healthcare workers.

Self-reported sickness absence and presenteeism as predictors of future disability pension: Cohort study with 11-year register follow-up.

Many healthcare workers in eldercare are pushed out of the labor market before the official retirement age due to poor health. Identification of early warnings signs is important to avoid complete loss of work ability. The aim of this study was to investigate to what degree sickness absence and presenteeism increase future risk for disability pension among eldercare workers. A total of 8952 Danish female eldercare workers responded to a survey about work environment and health. They were followed for 11 years in the Danish Register for Evaluation of Marginalization, with time-to-event analyses estimating the hazard ratios (HRs) for disability pension from sickness absence and presenteeism at baseline. Analyses were adjusted for age, education, body mass index, leisure-time physical activity, smoking, physical exertion at work, and psychosocial factors related to the work environment. During the 11-year follow-up, 11.9% participants received disability pension. For the whole cohort, the highest risk for disability pension was observed for the category of >30 days of combined sickness absence and presenteeism at baseline in the fully adjusted model (HR = 7.93 [95%CI 5.20-12.09]). Eldercare workers aged >45 years were at a higher risk for disability pension in all included categories. Sickness absence and presenteeism increased the risk of disability pension among female eldercare workers. These results suggest that organizations would benefit from identifying early warning signs among workers in the prevention of involuntary early retirement.

Association Between Physical Activity and Odds of Chronic Conditions Among Workers in Spain.

INTRODUCTION: Prevention of chronic conditions is a major public health challenge, and achieving minimum recommended levels of physical activity aids in reaching this objective. The aim of our study was to investigate whether levels of physical activity were associated with the prevalence of common chronic conditions among the Spanish workforce. METHODS: We retrieved data from the Spanish National Health Survey 2017 (N = 9,695) in which the mean age of participants was 44.4 (standard deviation, 10.4 y), and 47.4% were women. Workers self-reported a set of 6 chronic conditions (ie, chronic low-back pain, chronic neck pain, diabetes, hypertension, depression, and anxiety), and we used the International Physical Activity Questionnaire short form to estimate physical activity. We performed multivariable logistic regression adjusted for possible confounders to assess associations between physical activity and chronic conditions. RESULTS: The final adjusted model showed that performing less than 600 metabolic equivalent-minutes per week of physical activity was associated with significantly increased odds for chronic conditions (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] = 1.18; 95% CI, 1.07-1.30). Of the sex and age subgroups analyzed, this association was significant in men aged 17 to 44 (aOR = 1.21; 95% CI, 1.00-1.46). Among chronic conditions, low-back pain and anxiety were associated with low levels of physical activity, whereas covariates such as body mass index, smoking habits, education level, and occupational class had an important influence on the association between physical activity and chronic conditions. CONCLUSION: Results suggest that achieving sufficient physical activity could reduce chronic conditions among Spanish workers.

Association between lifestyle and musculoskeletal pain: cross-sectional study among 10,000 adults from the general working population.

BACKGROUND: Work-related musculoskeletal pain is a major cause of work disability and sickness absence. While pain is a multifactorial phenomenon being influenced by work as well as lifestyle, less is known about the association between specific lifestyle factors and the type of musculoskeletal pain. The aim of the study was to investigate if a dose-response association existed between lifestyle factors and musculoskeletal pain intensity in the low back and neck-shoulder. METHODS: Currently employed wage earners (N = 10,427) replied in 2010 to questions about work environment, lifestyle and health. Logistic regression analyses adjusted for various confounders tested the association of alcohol intake, physical activity, fruit and vegetable intake, and smoking (explanatory variables) with low back pain and neck-shoulder pain intensity (outcomes variables, scale 0-9, where ≥4 is high pain). RESULTS: The minimally adjusted model found that physical activity and fruit and vegetable intake were associated with lower risk of musculoskeletal pain, while smoking was associated with higher risk of musculoskeletal pain. In the fully adjusted model, physical activity ≥5 h per week was associated with lower risk of low back pain and neck-shoulder pain with risk ratios (RR) of 0.95 (95% CI 0.90-1.00) and 0.90 (95% CI 0.82-0.99), respectively. No association was found between alcohol intake and pain. CONCLUSION: Being physically active associated with lower risk of having musculoskeletal pain, while smoking habits and healthy eating were associated with higher pain when adjusting for age and gender. Considering the continuously increasing retirement age in many societies, initiatives to promote healthy habits should still be a political priority to help the workers to stay healthy and cope to their work.