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 Sustainable employability (SE) has become an important factor for keeping people in the labour market and enabling the extension of working life.

Aims We developed and validated an SE index to predict assured workability in 2 years. Additionally, we developed a scoring tool to use in practice.

Methods A questionnaire survey of postal employees aged ≥50 years was conducted in 2016 and followed up in 2018 (n = 1102). The data were divided into training and validation sets. The outcome was defined as whether the employees had an assured workability after 2 years or not. Multivariable log-binomial regression was used to calculate the SE index. The area under the curve (AUC) was calculated to assess the discriminative power of the index.

Results The probability of assured workability increased with increasing quintiles of the SE index. The highest quintiles of the SE index showed the highest observed and expected assured workability in 2 years. The predictive ability, area under the curve (AUC) for training was 0.79 (95% CI 0.75–0.83) and for validation data was 0.76 (95% CI 0.73–0.80). In the scoring tool, the self-rated health, workability, job satisfaction and perceived employment had the highest contribution to the index.

Conclusions The SE index was able to distinguish the employees based on whether they had assured workability after 2 years. The scoring method could be used to calculate the potentiality of future employability among late midlife postal employees.

Life satisfaction is an essential construct of well-being that is tied to behavioral, emotional, social and psychological outcomes. This study aimed to examine changes in total and domain-specific life satisfaction during the retirement transition and additionally examine whether those changes differ by gender, occupation, health and spousal working status. Aging public sector employees (n = 3543) from the Finnish Retirement and Aging Study cohort study were followed up annually before and after retirement. Total life satisfaction score (range 4–20) was computed by summing up the responses in four domains (interestingness, happiness, easiness and togetherness). The mean and mean change estimates and their 95% CI were calculated by using the linear regression models with generalized estimating equations, adjusted for age, gender, occupation, health and marital status. Total life satisfaction score improved among the entire study population during the retirement transition and remained stable thereafter. The improvement was greater among women versus men (gender * time interaction p = 0.004), among those with suboptimal health before retirement vs. those who had good (health * time p < 0.0001) and those who had no spouse vs. those who had a retired or working spouse (spousal-status * time p < 0.0001). In case of domain-specific life satisfaction scores, the greatest improvement was observed in the easiness domain. Life satisfaction improves during the retirement transition period, especially among women, those with suboptimal health and those living without a spouse. The improvement was considerably greater in the easiness domain than any other domains. Life satisfaction remained improved and stable during the post-retirement period.

Background This systematic review aimed to analyse the effectiveness of interventions on the stress management of schoolteachers.

Methods We searched the Medline, PsycINFO, CINAHL and Education Research Complete until 30 November 2021, to identify relevant studies using relevant key words. Job or occupational stress was used as the outcome measure. Stress was defined as Perceived Stress Scale, Teacher Stress Inventory, Maslach Burnout Inventory, Teacher's Distress, Brief Symptoms Inventory or Global Severity Index. Study selection, data extraction, risk of bias assessment was performed by two independent reviewers. The pooled estimate of the effect by the type of outcome measurement tool and by type of interventions used was calculated using random effects meta-analysis. We used Grades of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluation to assess the overall quality of the evidence.

Results We reviewed 26 studies, of which 24 were randomised trials and 2 pre-test/post-test studies. Based on meta-analysis, a positive effect of intervention (pooled estimate -1.13, 95% CI -1.52 to -0.73) with high heterogeneity among studies (chi(2)=426.88, p<0.001, I-2=94%) was found by type of interventions used. Cognitive-behavioural therapy had the strongest positive effect, followed by meditation among the types of interventions studied. We identified evidence of a moderate quality for interventions aiming to manage the stress level of schoolteachers.

Conclusions The meta-analysis showed a positive effect of interventions, suggesting that interventions might reduce the stress level among teachers. The quality of the evidence was moderate. 

Background: This study aimed to identify trajectories of low back pain (LBP) over a 16-year follow-up from midlife to retirement and investigate their association with mobility limitations and disability in activities of daily living (ADL-disability) in later life. Methods: The study population consisted of 6257 baseline (1981) respondents aged 44–58 years from Finnish Longitudinal study on Aging Municipal Employees. Repeated measurements of LBP were collected in 1985, 1992 and 1997. We studied persons who had data on LBP at baseline and in at least one of the follow-ups and had information on mobility limitations (n = 2305) and ADL-disability (n = 2359) at a 28-year follow-up in 2009. Latent class growth analysis was used to identify LBP trajectories. Odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for the associations of LBP trajectory and later life mobility limitations and ADL-disability were estimated and adjusted for confounders. Results: Three LBP trajectories with parallel shapes were identified: high-decreasing (19%), intermediate-stable (60%) and low (21%). After adjustment for confounders, high-decreasing trajectory had 3.2 times the odds (95% CI 2.1–4.9) of mobility limitations and 2.9 times the odds (95% CI 2.0–4.2) of ADL-disability as compared to low trajectory. The respective ORs for intermediate-stable trajectory were 1.6 (95% CI 1.2–2.1) and 1.7 (95% CI 1.3–2.3). Conclusions: Among majority of respondents, LBP remained stable over the follow-up. The respondents belonging to intermediate-stable and high-decreasing trajectories of LBP had higher odds of mobility limitations and ADL-disability at old age. This highlights that LBP during midlife to retirement has far-reached consequences on functional ability at old age.