We aimed to identify short and long-term trajectories of self-rated health (SRH) and physical working capacity during the retirement transition, and investigate whether work-related factors and social class predict belonging to these trajectories. We used the representative, biennial Swedish Longitudinal Occupational Survey of Health (SLOSH) 2006–2018. We applied group-based trajectory modeling with B-spline smoothers to model trajectories of SRH (n = 2,183) and physical working capacity (n = 2,152) during the retirement transition. Multinomial logistic regression analyses were conducted to investigate trajectory belonging by work-related factors and social class. There was a small “honeymoon effect” in SRH for the total sample. We found four trajectories of SRH and five of physical working capacity. The large majority sustained excellent or good SRH and physical working capacity throughout the study period. Almost 6% had Fairly poor SRH and physical working capacity starting from years before retirement, which remained throughout the study period. High job demands, low job control, adverse physical working conditions, and being in manual occupation increased the likelihood of belonging to the trajectory groups Deteriorating or Fairly poor when compared with the Excellent trajectory group for both SRH and physical working capacity. Our findings suggest that for most people health status is already established some years’ preretirement and maintained for years after retirement, except a short improvement in SRH in accordance with a honeymoon effect. In order to improve health and employability, interventions focusing on working environment should be aimed at younger and midlife employees as well as older workers.

Many European countries have increased retirement ages to address the challenge of population ageing. However, job strain which is the combination of high job demands and low job control may be an obstacle to extending the working lives of older workers. Job strain is associated with poor health and early work exit among older workers, but less is known about whether job strain impacts working life expectancy (WLE)—an increasingly employed summary measure capturing the length of working lives. This study aims to fill this gap in the literature. The sample included n = 13 225 individuals aged 50 years or older at baseline providing 53 004 persons-observations from the Swedish Longitudinal Occupational Survey of Health in 2008 through 2020. We used continuous time multi-state Markov models to assess the average number of years people may be expected to work beyond age 50 years by job strain, and stratified by sex, occupational class, and level of education. Job strain was associated with a significantly shorter WLE (by about 6 months to a year) among those who experienced job strain compared to those who did not experience job strain. Our findings suggest that job strain may play a role in shortening the working lives of older people. The findings further suggest that if older workers are to remain in the labor market for longer periods, this may require improvements of psychosocial working conditions.

Background: Regular physical activity is recommended for all aged 5 years and older, but the health benefits gained might differ across population subgroups. The aim of this study was to examine these benefits in terms of years lived free from major non-communicable diseases in subgroups with varying levels of risk factors. Methods: Our analysis was based on a multicohort study of initially healthy European adults from the IPD-Work Consortium and initially healthy participants from the UK Biobank study. Self-reported leisure-time physical activity levels at baseline (1986–2010) were categorised as low (no or very little), intermediate (between low and recommended levels), and WHO-recommended (≥2·5 h of moderate or ≥1·25 h of vigorous physical activity per week). We divided the study population into 36 overlapping subgroups based on socioeconomic factors, lifestyle, and mental health at baseline, and assessed disease-free years between ages 40 years and 75 years for both the overall population and subgroups, accounting for coronary heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, cancer, asthma, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Findings: 14 IPD-Work studies were assessed and six studies were excluded due to missing outcome data and unavailable data for pooling, resulting in the inclusion of eight studies with 124 909 participants. After the exclusion of 7685 participants due to prevalent diseases and 9265 due to missing data, the sample consisted of 107 959 initially healthy European adults (63 567 [58·9%] females and 44 392 [41·1%] males) from the IPD-Work consortium. For the UK Biobank sample, 9 238 453 million individuals were invited, 8 736 094 (94·6%) were non-respondents, and 502 359 participated in the baseline examination. After the exclusion of 73 460 participants, 428 899 participants had data on at least one measure of physical activity. 236 258 (55·1%) were female and 192 641 (44·9%) were male. During 1·6 million person-years at risk, 21 231 IPD-Work participants developed a non-communicable disease, while 101 319 UK Biobank participants developed a non-communicable disease over 4·8 million person-years at risk. Compared with individuals with low physical activity, those meeting the recommended physical activity levels during leisure-time gained an additional 1·1 (95% CI 1·0–1·2) to 2·0 (1·7–2·3) disease-free years, depending on sex and study. In males from the IPD-Work and UK Biobank cohorts, greater gains in disease-free years were observed in current smokers (2·4 [95% CI 2·1–2·8]) versus never smokers (0·7 [0·5–0·9]); those with low education (1·4 [1·1–1·7]) versus high education (0·8 [0·7–1·0]); low socioeconomic status (1·7 [1·5–2·0]) versus high socioeconomic status (0·9 [0·7–1·1]); and those with (1·6 [1·3–1·9]) versus without depressive symptoms (1·0 [0·9–1·1]; p value range <0·0001–0·0008). Similar differences were seen in women for smoking (2·3 [95% CI 1·9–2·7] vs 0·9 [0·7–1·1]), socioeconomic status (1·7 [1·4–2·0] vs 0·8 [0·5–1·0]), depressive symptoms (1·4 [1·1–1·7] vs 1·0 [0·9–1·1]), and for heavy drinkers compared with moderate drinkers (1·4 [1·1–1·6] vs 0·9 [0·7–1·1]; p value range <0·0001–0·010). No differences in physical activity-related health gains were observed between risk groups and non-risk groups by BMI, history of depression, and, in men, alcohol use (p value range 0·11–0·86). Interpretation: In addition to confirming the association between leisure-time physical activity and increased disease-free years across population subgroups, our findings show that these health benefits are often more pronounced among individuals with pre-existing health risks or disadvantaged backgrounds than in those with more favourable risk factor profiles. This suggests that enhancing population-wide physical activity initiatives could help reduce health disparities, while incorporating physical activity into targeted strategies addressing social disadvantage, unhealthy lifestyles, and depression might enhance their effectiveness. 

Introduction: Drawing upon the framework of life course epidemiology, this study aligns with research on the mental health consequences of significant social transitions during early adulthood. The focus is on the variation in initial labour market attachment and the development of depressiveness, assuming that a firm attachment is associated with decreasing depressiveness.

Methods: The baseline investigation of the studied cohort (n = 1,001) took place during their final year of compulsory schooling at age 16. Follow-up surveys were conducted at ages 18, 21, 30, and 43. Depressiveness was measured with a five-item score. Multiple trajectory analysis, incorporating five labour market statuses observed over seven half-year periods from ages 18 to 21, was employed to categorize the cohort into six distinct groups. Among these, ‘All-time education,’ ‘From education to employment,’ ‘Education and employment,’ and ‘From employment to education’ were considered to demonstrate firm labour market attachment. Meanwhile, ‘Active labour market policy’ and ‘Unemployment’ represented less firm attachment.

Results: The trajectory of depressive symptoms among the total cohort from age 16 to age 43 exhibited a ‘broken stick’ pattern, reaching its lowest point at age 21. This pattern was evident in all groups classified as having a firm attachment. A substantial decrease in depressiveness was also observed in the relatively weakly attached ‘Active labour market policy’ group, whereas no ‘broken stick’ pattern emerged in the ‘Unemployment’ group. The disparities in the levels of depressiveness observed at age 21 remained relatively stable across the measurements at ages 30 and 43.

Discussion: The results were as expected, except for the observed improvement in mental health within the ‘Active labour market policy’ group. Supported labour market attachment during emerging adulthood can enhance mental well-being similarly to regular mainstream attachment. In terms of policy recommendations, the consistently high levels of depressiveness within the ‘Unemployment’ group underscore the importance of reducing long-term and repeated unemployment in young age. The findings regarding the ‘Active labour market policy’ provide evidence of the intervention’s benefits. While the primary goal of these measures is to create jobs for the unemployed, they also include elements that contribute to participants’ mental health.

Background: Retirement transition has been shown to associate with changes in physical activity (PA) and self-rated health (SRH), but their interrelationship is less studied. The aim was to investigate changes in accelerometer-measured total PA, moderate to vigorous PA (MVPA), and sedentary time across retirement transition as a predictor of SRH. Methods: Data from the Swedish Retirement Study and the Finnish Retirement and Aging study were harmonized and pooled. Data from 3 waves (about 12 mo apart) were included: 1 preretirement (wave 1) and 2 postretirement follow-ups (wave 2–3). A totally of 245 participants (27% men) were included. Thigh-worn accelerometers were used to collect data for PA variables (wave 1–2), and SRH was obtained from the questionnaire (wave 1–3). Results: Between wave 1 and 2, total PA decreased with 11 (CI, −22 to −1) minutes per day, MVPA was stable (0 [CI, −3 to 3] min), and sedentary time decreased nonsignificantly with 9 (CI, −20 to 1) minutes. SRH changed between all 3 waves (all P < .001). At preretirement, 10 more minutes of MVPA was associated with greater odds of better SRH when adjusting for accelerometer wear-time, cohort, sex, age, and occupational status (odds ratio: 1.11 [95% CI, 1.02–1.22]). This association was no longer statistically significant when additionally adjusting for marital status, body mass index, and smoking. No significant associations were observed between changes in the PA variables during retirement transition and SRH at postretirement follow-ups. Conclusions: This study showed a cross-sectional association between MVPA and greater odds of reporting better SRH before retirement. No longitudinal associations were observed between changes in the PA variables from before to after retirement and later changes in SRH.

Background: With climate change Northern areas of the globe are expected to have less daylight during winters due to less snow and more cloudiness. While wintertime has been linked to mental health problems, the role of wintertime daylight has been scarcely studied. We examined longitudinal associations for wintertime objective exposure to global radiation and self-reported daylight exposure with symptoms of depression and sleep problems.

Methods: Our analytical sample included 15,619 respondents from three Swedish Longitudinal Occupational Surveys of Health (2012, 2014 and 2016). Objective exposure was global radiation (MJ/m², November-January and November-February). Subjective exposure was based on self-reported time spent outdoors in daylight (<1 h vs. ≥ 1 h, November-January). Symptoms of depression were evaluated using a six-item subscale of the (Hopkins) Symptom Checklist. Fixed-effects method with conditional logistic regression controlled for time-invariant participant characteristics by design and time-varying covariates were added into models.

Results: One unit increase in the four-month averaged global radiation was associated with lower odds of depressive symptoms (OR 0.69, 95 % CI 0.52–0.91). These findings were confirmed using four-month cumulative exposure (OR 0.91, 95 % CI 0.85–0.98). Individuals reporting ≥ 1 h exposure to daylight during winter months were less likely to report depressive symptoms (OR 0.72, 95 % CI 0.60–0.82) compared to time when their exposure was < 1 h. Higher three-month exposure to global radiation suggested a protective association for sleep problems.

Conclusion: These findings suggest that higher exposure to daylight during winters may contribute to lower likelihood of depression symptoms.

Aims: Exposure to work-related sexual harassment may increase the risk for certain adverse behavioural and emotional outcomes but less is known about its association with somatic diseases such as cardiovascular disease (CVD) and type 2 diabetes. This study investigated the prospective association of work-related sexual harassment and risk of cardiometabolic diseases. Methods and results: This cohort study included 88 904 Swedish men and women in paid work who responded to questions on workplace sexual harassment in the Swedish Work Environment Survey (1995–2015) and were free from cardiometabolic diseases at baseline. Cardiometabolic diseases (CVD and type 2 diabetes) were identified from the National Patient Register and Causes of Death Register through linkage. Cox proportional hazard regression was used, adjusting for socio-demographic, work-related psychosocial, and physical exposure at baseline. Overall, 4.8% of the participants (n = 4300) reported exposure to workplace sexual harassment during the previous 12 months. After adjustment for sex, birth country, family situation, education, income, and work-related factors, workplace sexual harassment was associated with increased incidence of CVD [hazard ratio (HR) 1.25, 95% confidence interval 1.03–1.51] and type 2 diabetes (1.45, 1.21–1.73). The HR for CVD (1.57, 1.15–2.15) and type 2 diabetes (1.85, 1.39–2.46) was increased for sexual harassment from superior or fellow workers, and sexual harassment from others was associated with type 2 diabetes (1.39, 1.13–1.70). The HR for both CVD (1.31, 0.95–1.81) and type 2 diabetes (1.72, 1.30–2.28) was increased for frequent exposure. Conclusion: The results of this study support the hypothesis that workplace sexual harassment is prospectively associated with cardiometabolic diseases. Future research is warranted to understand causality and mechanisms behind these associations.

Background The aim of this study was to contribute to the theoretical development within the field of labour market effects on mental health during life by integrating Bronfenbrenner’s ecological model with mainly earlier theoretical work on life-course theory.

Methods An integrative review was performed of all 52 publications about labour market conditions in relation to mental health from the longitudinal Northern Swedish Cohort study. Inductive and deductive qualitative content analysis were performed in relation to Bronfenbrenner’s ecological framework combined with life-course theories.

Results The following nine themes were identified: 1. Macroeconomic recession impairs mental health among young people. 2. The mental health effects on individuals of youth unemployment seem rather insensitive to recession. 3. Small but consistent negative effect of neighbourhood unemployment and other work-related disadvantaged on individuals’ mental health over life. 4. Youth unemployment becomes embodied as scars of mental ill-health over life. 5. Weak labour market attachment impairs mental health over life. 6. Bidirectional relations between health and weak labour market attachment over life. 7. Macrolevel structures are of importance for how labour market position cause poor health. 8. Unequal gender relations at work impacts negatively on mental health. 9. The agency to improve health over life in dyadic relations. Unemployment in society permeates from the macrolevel into the exolevel, defined by Bronfenbrenner as for example the labour market of parents or partners or the neighbourhood into the settings closest to the individual (the micro- and mesolevel) and affects the relations between the work, family, and leisure spheres of the individual. Neighbourhood unemployment leads to poor health among those who live there, independent of their employment status. Individuals’ exposure to unemployment and temporary employment leads to poorer mental health over the life-course. Temporal dimensions were identified and combined with Bronfenbrenner levels into a contextual life-course model

Conclusion Combining the ecosocial theory with life-course theories provides a framework for understanding the embodiment of work-related mental health over life. The labour market conditions surrounding the individual are of crucial importance for the embodiment of mental health over life, at the same time as individual agency can be health promoting. Mental health can be improved by societal efforts in regulations of the labour market.

Background: Suicidal ideation may be a warning sign for suicide and previous work has indicated a higher prevalence of suicidal ideation during the COVID-19 pandemic. Job loss and job insecurity are potential risk factors for suicidal ideation, but their importance during the pandemic, and the role of organizational changes for suicidal ideation, is unclear. This study examined the association between various experiences associated with job loss and job insecurity during the pandemic and thoughts of suicide/self-harm in Sweden.

Methods: The study sample was drawn from the Swedish Longitudinal Occupational Survey of Health (SLOSH). Auxiliary data collections in February 2021 and 2022 assessed exposure to job loss/unemployment, furlough, workplace downsizing, or increased job insecurity versus stable employment and thoughts of suicide or self-harm (PHQ-9) during the pandemic. The analyses were based on 1558 individuals (2 349 observations) participating in either or both waves and who had been working before the pandemic. Logistic regression models with cluster-robust standard errors were fitted, including sociodemographic factors and prior mental health problems to control for potential confounding. Measures of personality based on a brief version of the Big-Five personality inventory were also added.

Results: The results indicated an association between all experiences, except furlough, and thoughts of suicide/self-harm, when adjusting for sex, age, civil status, socioeconomic status and prior mental health (job loss odds ratio (OR) = 3.70, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.79–7.63, downsizing OR = 2.41, CI 1.24–4.70, job insecurity OR = 2.77, CI 1.15–6.67). The associations for job loss and insecurity were attenuated by adjustment for personality, although it remained statistically significant for downsizing.

Conclusions: The results suggested a higher risk of suicidal ideation connected with loss of employment and survival of a downsizing, but not a forced reduction in working times/pay during the COVID-19 pandemic. The association for subjective job insecurity was less robust and may be partly explained by personality.

Aim: The aim of the paper is to analyse if alcohol consumption could explain the scarring effect of youth unemployment on later depressive symptoms. Methods: The analyses are based on the 24-year follow-up of school leavers in a municipality in Northern Sweden (the Northern Swedish Cohort). Four-way decomposition analyses were performed to analyse if alcohol use at age 30 years could mediate and/or moderate the effect of youth unemployment (ages 18/21 years) on depressive symptoms in later adulthood (age 43 years). Results: Excessive alcohol use at early adulthood (age 30 years) mediates 18% of the scarring effect of youth unemployment on depressive symptoms in later adulthood. The scarring effect was seen among both those with and without excessive alcohol use.  Conclusions: Youth unemployment leads to poor mental health later in life and part of these relations are explained by excessive alcohol consumption in early adulthood. Policy interventions should target the prevention of youth unemployment for reaching a lower alcohol consumption and better mental health.