Background  Retirement is a major life transition that can alter patterns of movement behaviors (physical activity, sedentary behavior and sleep). While some studies indicate an increase in physical activity post-retirement, others report a rise in sedentary behavior. However, evidence is lacking on how individuals re-allocate time among movement behaviors, particularly using analytical approaches that account for the co-dependence of 24-hour time-use data. Furthermore, little is known about how pre-retirement occupational physical activity (OPA) levels influence physical activity after retirement. This study examined changes in the relative time spent in sleep, sedentary behavior (SB), light physical activity (LPA), and moderate-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) over retirement, and how these changes vary by pre-retirement OPA levels.

Methods  Data were drawn from the Swedish Retirement Study, which followed 112 participants (47 men, 65 women; age: 60–72) at three timepoints during the retirement transition. Movement behavior and sleep data were collected over a week-long period using thigh-worn accelerometers and wrist-worn actigraphs. Compositional data analysis (CoDA) was employed to account for the co-dependent nature of 24-hour time-use data. Multivariable linear mixed models, adjusted for sociodemographic and health covariates, were used to evaluate the associations between retirement, OPA tertiles, and movement behaviors.

Results  In the overall sample, changes in movement behaviors mainly involved sleep. However, substantial variation was observed across OPA tertile groups. The sleep-to-wake time ratio increased in the high OPA group and, to a lesser extent, in the medium OPA group. Regarding physically active and sedentary time, a convergence between the high and low OPA groups was observed, as pre-retirement differences diminished. Specifically, the ratio of physically active time to SB decreased in the high OPA group and increased in the low OPA group.

Conclusions  The findings indicate that pre-retirement OPA is a significant factor in understanding changes in movement behaviors during the retirement transition. The reduction in post-retirement physical activity among high-OPA workers may represent a healthier rebalancing rather than a decline, which aligns with the “physical activity paradox” and the “Sweet-Spot Hypothesis”. This evidence highlights the need for tailored interventions for retirees, particularly those from physically demanding occupations.

Objectives This study aimed to quantify possible associations between exposure to workplace bullying and violence, or threats thereof, and working life expectancy (WLE) among older workers in Sweden.

Methods We conducted a prospective cohort study using data on 12 920 individuals in analyses of workplace bullying and 12 903 individuals in analyses of violence. Participants, aged >50 at baseline, were obtained from the Swedish Longitudinal Occupational Survey of Health, using data from 2008 to 2020. We applied continuous-time multistate Markov models to estimate the average number of years that individuals could be expected to work beyond the age of 50, comparing those exposed to workplace bullying or workplace violence/threats of violence to those unexposed.

Results In the unadjusted analysis, exposure to workplace bullying and workplace violence/threats of violence was associated with shorter WLE among older workers [bullying: -0.42 years, 95% confidence interval (CI) -1.23–0.01; violence: -0.42 years, 95% CI -1.06–0.01]. After controlling for sex and occupational level, WLE at age 50 was -0.56 years among those exposed to workplace violence (95% CI -1.02– -0.10) compared with the unexposed. The estimate for workplace bullying was -0.63 years (95% CI -1.39–0.14).

Conclusion Exposure to workplace violence or threats of violence was associated with fewer average expected years in work from age 50. This suggests that prevention of workplace violence could contribute to extended working lives. The association between workplace bullying and WLE was of similar magnitude but not statistically significant.

Background  The COVID-19 pandemic led to major societal changes. Although the pandemic has significantly impacted the way we work, few studies have examined its effects on the prevalence of illegitimate tasks, i.e., tasks that are perceived as either unnecessary or unreasonable. Occupational groups were likely affected differently. This study investigates the prevalence of illegitimate tasks for registered nurses, teachers, IT specialists, and construction workers in pre-pandemic (2018), early-pandemic (2020), late-pandemic (2022), and post-pandemic (2024) periods.

Methods  Data were collected from biennial waves of the Swedish Longitudinal Occupational Survey of Health (SLOSH), corresponding to pandemic periods (pre-, early-, late-, and post-pandemic). We included four different occupational groups that vary in terms of socially critical activities, the possibility of teleworking, and the level of social interactions required in the job: registered nurses (n = 385), teachers (n = 412), IT specialists (n = 353) and construction workers (n = 313). We employed Generalized Estimating Equations (GEE) to assess changes in illegitimate tasks over time.

Results  Our longitudinal GEE models revealed that teachers reported a higher prevalence of illegitimate tasks than registered nurses, IT specialists, and construction workers. From the pre-pandemic period (2018) to the late-pandemic period (2022), all four occupational groups experienced a significant decrease in unreasonable tasks (adjusted for age), while unnecessary tasks decreased for all groups except teachers, for whom there was no significant change. By the post-pandemic period (2024), unnecessary tasks returned to pre-pandemic levels across all occupations, whereas unreasonable tasks remained at the lower, late-pandemic, level.

Conclusions  The level of illegitimate work varies across different occupations, with a higher prevalence in female-dominated, human service fields compared to male-dominated technical roles. Addressing the growing care needs with more human resources will be challenging. One possible solution is to increase available working time by reducing illegitimate and especially unnecessary tasks. Overall, this study contributes to a better understanding of how an important aspect of the work environment, illegitimate tasks, shifted during a period of major societal change.

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.

Perceived job insecurity is associated with poor mental health, but whether it affects sickness absence is not well understood. The present study examines the association between perceived job insecurity and sickness absence due to common mental disorders and whether changes in perceived job insecurity affects the risk of sickness absence due to common mental disorders. Data are from the Swedish Longitudinal Occupational Survey of Health and include those who participated at least once between 2010 and 2020 (n = 24 049). Two different types of analyses were conducted: (1) logistic regression with adjustments for baseline covariates and (2) pooled logistic regression with inverse probability weights, across 5 emulated target trials assessing onsets and/or offsets of job insecurity versus stable security or stable insecurity, on the risk of sickness absence for common mental disorders. Perceived job insecurity was associated with increased odds of sickness absence for common mental disorders over a 2-year period (odds ratio = 1.38, 95% confidence intervals (CI) 1.13-1.68). We found no statistically significant associations for an onset of job insecurity versus being stably secure (risk ratio (RR) 1.484, 95% CI 0.913-2.055) nor for offset versus stable insecurity (RR 0.855, 95% CI 0.308-1.402). The findings from our emulated target trials were, however, uncertain. Findings suggest that perceived job insecurity increases the risk of sickness absence for common mental disorders. The study implies that efforts to increase employee's sense of security may help reduce rates of sickness absence for common mental disorders if job insecurity is reduced long-term.

Background Substantial research suggests that the risk of substance misuse is higher among individuals who remain unmarried or experience marital dissolution, whereas marriage tends to be protective. However, few studies have considered the role of substance misuse for transitions between discrete marital status categories. The current study aims to estimate associations between substance misuse and marital status transitions from ages 20–66.

Methods Our study population was a national Swedish cohort born in 1953 (n=71 901), followed from 1973 to 2019. Annual marital status and hospitalisation records for substance misuse were derived from the Total Population and National Patient registers, respectively. We used a five-state multistate model to estimate associations between substance misuse and marital status transitions—the state space included never married, married, divorced and widowed with death as the absorbing state. We further used fixed-effect models to estimate the effects of substance misuse on transitions out of marriage.

Results Findings suggested that individuals’ substance misuse was associated with an increased risk of transitioning from married to divorced (HR=3.54, 95% CI 3.40 to 3.69) or widowed (HR=1.71, 95% CI 1.46 to 2.01), and transitioning to death from all states. Substance misuse was also negatively associated with transitioning from never married to married (HR=0.59, 95% CI 0.57 to 0.61), and into remarriage after divorce (HR=0.86, 95% CI 0.80 to 0.92). The fixed-effect results suggested that substance misuse increased the risk of transitioning to divorce and widowhood, net of sociodemographic characteristics.

Conclusion Substance misuse is associated with an increased risk of marital dissolution and death when accounting for nearly 50 years of marital biographies.

Increases in retirement ages make it particularly pressing to better understand how long people will work. Working life expectancy (WLE) is a useful measure for this and the current paper assesses the tools, that is, software packages, available to assess it. We do this using data from the English Longitudinal Survey on Ageing (ELSA, 2003-2018) and multistate models to estimate WLE stratified by sex and socioeconomic status. Men's versus women's WLEs were slightly higher at all ages. Estimates were similar in ELECT and SPACE by both sex and socioeconomic status. WLEs were comparatively higher from IMaCh, ranging from approximately 0.28 to 1.49 years. Life expectancy estimates from IMaCh were also higher compared to SPACE and ELECT. Using multistate models to estimate WLE provides a useful indication of the actual expected length of working life. More research is needed to better understand why estimates from IMaCh differed from ELECT and SPACE.

The COVID-19 pandemic led to permanent and temporary job losses but the mental health consequences of different types of employment transitions are not well-understood. In particular, knowledge is scarce concerning furloughs, which was a common job protection strategy in many high-and upper middle-income countries during this crisis. This study focuses on how different types of job instability and job loss during the pandemic influences depression and anxiety in the context of Sweden.A subset of participants from the Swedish Longitudinal Occupational Survey of Health were contacted in February 2021 and again in February 2022. A total of 1558 individuals participated in either or both waves and worked before the pandemic. We examined whether i) workplace downsizing, ii) furlough, or iii) unemploy-ment/job loss were associated with depression and anxiety over this one-year period during the pandemic. Logistic regression models with cluster-robust standard errors were estimated, adjusting for sociodemographic factors and prior mental health problems. Effect modification by sex and prior mental health problems was also examined.In comparison to stable employment, being furloughed was unrelated to mental health, while experiencing workplace downsizing during the pandemic was associated with an increased risk of anxiety (adjusted Odds Ratio (OR) = 2.09, 95% Confidence interval (CI) = 1.08-4.05). Job loss/unemployment increased the risk of depression (OR = 1.91, 95% CI = 1.02-3.57) compared to being stably employed, but the risk estimate crossed unity when considering prior mental health status. No effect modification by sex or by prior mental health problems was found.This study found that while job loss and downsizing during the COVID-19 pandemic were associated with depression and anxiety, respectively, being furloughed was not. These findings thus suggest that job retention schemes in the form of short-time work allowances, as implemented in Sweden during the COVID-19 pandemic, may prevent mental health problems among employees during economic crises.

Research suggests that work-related factors like job insecurity increases the risk of major depression (MD), although it is unclear whether the association is causal. Research further suggests that job insecurity increases sleep disturbances, which is also a risk factor for MD. Based on current knowledge, it is possible that job insecurity operates through sleep disturbances to affect MD, but this pathway has not been examined in the literature. The current study extends the literature by using two complementary, counterfactual approaches (i.e., random- and fixed-effects regression and a mediational g-formula) to examine whether job insecurity causes MD and whether sleep disturbances mediate the relationship. A methodological triangulation approach allowed us to adjust for unobserved and intermediate confounding, which has not been addressed in prior research. Findings suggest that the relationship between job insecurity and MD is primarily direct, that hypothetically intervening on job insecurity (in our g-formula) would reduce MD by approximately 10% at the population level, and this relationship operates via sleep disturbances to some degree. However, the indirect pathway had a high degree of uncertainty.

Longer life expectancy and fertility decline have increased concerns about the security of old-age pensions. Raising retirement ages is one strategy to offset rising costs, though the option to retire varies considerably by socioeconomic status (SES) and sex. In terms of SES, the level of variation may depend on the measure used. Also, many workers now transition into retirement slowly, e.g., move from full- to part-time work. Thus, retirement age may not sufficiently capture how long people work. Working life expectancy (WLE)—the expected average number of years worked—better measures total working life. We use data from the Swedish Longitudinal Occupational Survey of Health (SLOSH) from 2008 to 2020 (n=4,940 people age 50+ and n=74,093 person-observations) to examine WLE by education and occupation. We estimate a three-state multistate model (i.e., working, not working, dead) and a four-state model (working part-time, working full-time, not working, and dead); both assume a continuous-time first-order Markov process. We estimate two sex-stratified models, cross-classified by: 1) occupation; and 2) education. We find that professionals work full-time 1 year more than routine workers, regardless of sex. The low educated work full-time 1 year less than the highly educated. In our weighted three-state model, where part-time work contributed ½ of full-time work, the difference increased to 1.14 and 1.05 years, respectively. Our unweighted three-state model showed slightly larger education differences. Findings suggest that WLE differs by SES, regardless of sex, and the differences are greater by education than occupation. This has implications for extending working life policies.