Aims: The aim of this study was to examine sickness absence and disability pension (SA/DP) during working lifespan among individuals diagnosed with carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) and their matched references, accounting for sociodemographic factors. Methods: We used a register cohort of 78,040 individuals aged 19-60 years when diagnosed with CTS in secondary health care (hospitals and outpatient specialist health care) and their 390,199 matched references from the general population in 2001-2010. Sociodemographic factors and SA/DP net days during a three-year follow-up were included. Negative binomial regression was used. Results: For those not on DP at inclusion, the average number of SA/DP days per person-year was 58 days (95% confidence interval (CI) 56-60 days) among individuals with CTS and 20 days (95% CI 19-21 days) among the matched references. Among both groups, these numbers increased with age and were higher among women than among men. The rate ratio (RR) of SA/DP days was threefold higher among people with CTS than among the matched references (adjusted RR=3.00, 95% CI 2.91-3.10) Moreover, compared to the matched references, the RR for SA/DP was higher among men with CTS (RR=3.86, 95% CI 3.61-4.13) than among women with CTS (RR=2.69, 95% CI 2.59-2.78). The association between CTS and the number of SA/DP days was smaller among older age groups. Sociodemographic factors were similarly associated with SA/DP among people with and without CTS. Conclusions: Numbers of SA/DP days were higher among people with CTS than their matched references in all age groups, particularly among individuals in their early work careers, highlighting public-health relevance of the findings.

Background: Job strain is implicated in many atherosclerotic diseases, but its role in peripheral artery disease (PAD) is unclear. We investigated the association of job strain with hospital records of PAD, using individual-level data from 11 prospective cohort studies from Finland, Sweden, Denmark, and the United Kingdom.

Methods and Results: Job strain (high demands and low control at work) was self-reported at baseline (1985-2008). PAD records were ascertained from national hospitalization data. We used Cox regression to examine the associations of job strain with PAD in each study, and combined the study-specific estimates in random effects meta-analyses. We used tau(2), I-2, and subgroup analyses to examine heterogeneity. Of the 139 132 participants with no previous hospitalization with PAD, 32 489 (23.4%) reported job strain at baseline. During 1 718 132 person-years at risk (mean follow-up 12.8 years), 667 individuals had a hospital record of PAD (3.88 per 10 000 person-years). Job strain was associated with a 1.41-fold (95% CI, 1.11-1.80) increased average risk of hospitalization with PAD. The study-specific estimates were moderately heterogeneous (tau(2)=0.0427, I-2: 26.9%). Despite variation in their magnitude, the estimates were consistent in both sexes, across the socioeconomic hierarchy and by baseline smoking status. Additional adjustment for baseline diabetes mellitus did not change the direction or magnitude of the observed associations.

Conclusions: Job strain was associated with small but consistent increase in the risk of hospitalization with PAD, with the relative risks on par with those for coronary heart disease and ischemic stroke.

Objective: To examine the relation between long working hours and change in body mass index (BMI).

Methods: We performed random effects meta-analyses using individual-participant data from 19 cohort studies from Europe, US and Australia (n = 122,078), with a mean of 4.4-year follow-up. Working hours were measured at baseline and categorised as part time (<35 h/week), standard weekly hours (35–40 h, reference), 41–48 h, 49–54 h and ≥55 h/week (long working hours). There were four outcomes at follow-up: (1) overweight/obesity (BMI ≥ 25 kg/m2) or (2) overweight (BMI 25–29.9 kg/m2) among participants without overweight/obesity at baseline; (3) obesity (BMI ≥ 30 kg/m2) among participants with overweight at baseline, and (4) weight loss among participants with obesity at baseline.

Results: Of the 61,143 participants without overweight/obesity at baseline, 20.2% had overweight/obesity at follow-up. Compared with standard weekly working hours, the age-, sex- and socioeconomic status-adjusted relative risk (RR) of overweight/obesity was 0.95 (95% CI 0.90–1.00) for part-time work, 1.07 (1.02–1.12) for 41–48 weekly working hours, 1.09 (1.03–1.16) for 49–54 h and 1.17 (1.08–1.27) for long working hours (Pfor trend <0.0001). The findings were similar after multivariable adjustment and in subgroup analyses. Long working hours were associated with an excess risk of shift from normal weight to overweight rather than from overweight to obesity. Long working hours were not associated with weight loss among participants with obesity.

Conclusions: This analysis of large individual-participant data suggests a small excess risk of overweight among the healthy-weight people who work long hours.

Objective: This study aimed to examine the onset of workplace bullying as a risk factor for BMI increase.

Methods: Repeated biennial survey data from three Nordic cohort studies were used, totaling 46,148 participants (67,337 participant observations) aged between 18 and 65 who did not have obesity and who were not bullied at the baseline. Multinomial logistic regression was applied for the analysis under the framework of generalized estimating equations.

Results: Five percent reported onset of workplace bullying within 2 years from the baseline. In confounder-adjusted models, onset of workplace bullying was associated with a higher risk of weight gain of >= 1 BMI unit (odds ratio = 1.09; 95% CI: 1.01-1.19) and of >= 2.5 BMI units (odds ratio = 1.24; 95% CI: 1.06-1.45). A dose-response pattern was observed, and those exposed to workplace bullying more frequently showed a higher risk (P-trend = 0.04). The association was robust to adjustments, restrictions, stratifications, and use of relative/absolute scales for BMI change.

Conclusions: Participants with exposure to the onset of workplace bullying were more likely to gain weight, a possible pathway linking workplace bullying to increased long-term risk of type 2 diabetes.

Background: Retirement has been associated with improved mental health, but it is unclear how much this is due to the removal of work-related stressors. We examined rates of psychotropic medication use before and after the transition to disability retirement due to mental, musculoskeletal and other causes by pre-retirement levels of perceived work stress (effort-reward imbalance, ERI). Methods: Register-based date and diagnosis of disability retirement of 2766 participants of the Finnish Public Sector study cohort were linked to survey data on ERI, socialand health-related covariates, and to national records on prescribed reimbursed psychotropic medication, measured as defined daily doses (DDDs). Follow-up for DDDs was 2–5 years before and after disability retirement. We assessed differences in the levels of DDDs before and after retirement among those with high vs. low level of pre-retirement ERI with repeated measures regression. Results: Those with high (vs. low) levels of ERI used slightly more psychotropic medication before disability retirement due to mental disorders [rate ratio (RR) 1.14, 95% confidence intervals (CI) 0.94–1.37], but after retirement this difference attenuated (RR 0.94, 95% CI 0.80–1.10, P for interaction 0.02). Such a change was not observed for the other causes of disability retirement. Conclusions: The level of psychotropic medication use over the transition to disability retirement due to mental, but not musculoskeletal or other, causes was modified by pre-retirement perceived work-related stress. This suggests that among people retiring due to mental disorders those who had stressful jobs benefit from retirement more than those with low levels of work-related stress.

Objectives: Previous studies have produced conflicting findings on the health consequences of retirement. We aimed at identifying trajectories of self-rated health over retirement transition using repeated measurements and examined which preretirement factors predicted membership to each trajectory. Methods: The study population consisted of Finnish public sector employees from two independent cohorts (Finnish Public Sector Study (FPS), n=5776 with a 4-year follow-up interval; and Finnish Retirement and Aging Study (FIREA), n=2796 with a 1-year follow-up interval). Both cohorts included assessment of self-rated health one to three times before and one to three times after retirement (average number of measurement points: 3.7 in FPS and 3.5 in FIREA). We used latent trajectory analysis to identify trajectories of self-rated health. Results: In both cohorts four similar trajectories were identified: 'Sustained good health' (47% in FPS and 74% in FIREA), 'From good to suboptimal health' (19% and 6%), 'From suboptimal to good health' (14% and 8%) and 'Sustained suboptimal health' (20% and 12%). There were more women and persons in high occupational status in the 'From suboptimal to good health' trajectory group when compared with 'Sustained suboptimal health' trajectory group in FPS. Those in the trajectory 'From good to suboptimal health' had lower occupational status and higher job strain in comparison with those in the 'Sustained good health' trajectory in both cohorts. Conclusions: A large majority of public sector employees maintain their perceived health status during retirement transition. Adverse trajectory in self-rated health relate to low occupational status and work-related stressors.

Objectives Bi-directional associations between perceived effort-reward imbalance (FRI) at work and neck-shoulder pain have been reported. There is also evidence of associations between ERI and depressive symptoms, and between depressive symptoms and pain while the links between ERI, depressive symptoms and pain have not been tested. We aimed to assess whether depressive symptoms mediate the association between ERI and neck-shoulder pain, as well as the association between neck-shoulder pain and ERI.

Methods We used prospective data from three consecutive surveys of the Swedish Longitudinal Occupational Survey of Health (SLOSH) study. ERI was assessed with a short version of the ERI questionnaire, and pain was defined as having had neck-shoulder pain that affected daily life during the past three months. Depressive symptoms were assessed with a continuous scale based on six-items of the (Hopkins) Symptom Checklist. Counterfactual mediation analyses were applied using exposure measures from 2010/2012 (T1), depressive symptoms from 2012/2014 (T2), and outcomes from 2014/2016 (T3), and including only those free of outcome at T1 and T2 (N=2876-3239).

Results ERI was associated with a higher risk of neck-shoulder pain [risk ratio (RR) for total effect 1.22, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.00-1.48] and 41% of this total effect was mediated through depressive symptoms. Corresponding RR for association between neck-shoulder pain and ERI was 1.34 (95% CI 1.09-1.64), but the mediating role of depressive symptoms was less consistent.

Conclusions Depressive symptoms appear to be an intermediate factor in the relationship between ERI and neck-shoulder pain.

Objective: Inflammation may underlie the association between psychological stress and cardiometabolic diseases, but this proposition has not been tested longitudinally. We investigated whether the circulating inflammatory markers interleukin-6 (IL-6) and C-reactive protein (CRP) mediate the relationship between psychosocial work characteristics and diabetes. Methods: We used three phases of data at 5 years intervals from the Whitehall II cohort study, originally recruiting 10,308 civil service employees aged 35-55 years. The data included repeat self-reports of job demands, control and social support, IL-6 from plasma samples, CRP from serum samples, and diabetes, ascertained through oral glucose tolerance test, medications, and self-reports of doctor-diagnosed diabetes. Results: Structural equation models with age, sex and occupational position considering men and women combined, showed that low social support at work, but not high job demands or low job control, was prospectively associated with diabetes (standardized beta = 0.05, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.01-0.09) and higher levels of IL-6 (beta = 0.03, CI 0.00-0.06). The inflammatory markers and diabetes were bidirectionally associated over time. A mediation model including workplace social support, IL-6 and diabetes further showed that 10% of the association between social support and diabetes over the three repeat examinations (total effect beta = 0.08, CI 0.01-0.15) was attributable to a weak indirect effect through IL-6 (beta = 0.01, CI 0.00-0.02). A similar indirect effect was observed for CRP in men only, while job control was prospectively associated with IL-6 among women. Conclusions: This study indicates an association between poor workplace support and diabetes that is partially ascribed to an inflammatory response.

Background Although long working hours have been shown to be associated with the onset of cardiometabolic diseases, the clinical risk factor profile associated with long working hours remains unclear. We compared the clinical risk profile between people who worked long hours and those who reported being never exposed to long hours.

Methods A cross-sectional study in 22 health screening centres in France was based on a random population-based sample of 75 709 participants aged 18–69 at study inception in 2012–2016 (the CONSTANCES study). The data included survey responses on working hours (never, former or current exposure to long working hours), covariates and standardised biomedical examinations including anthropometry, lung function, blood pressure and standard blood-based biomarkers.

Results Among men, long working hours were associated with higher anthropometric markers (Body Mass Index, waist circumference and waist:hip ratio), adverse lipid levels, higher glucose, creatinine, white blood cells and higher alanine transaminase (adjusted mean differences in the standardised scale between the exposed and unexposed 0.02–0.12). The largest differences were found for Body Mass Index and waist circumference. A dose–response pattern with increasing years of working long hours was found for anthropometric markers, total cholesterol, glucose and gamma-glutamyltransferase. Among women, long working hours were associated with Body Mass Index and white blood cells.

Conclusion In this study, men who worked long hours had slightly worse cardiometabolic and inflammatory profile than those who did not work long hours, especially with regard to anthropometric markers. In women, the corresponding associations were weak or absent.

Aims

To assess the associations between bullying and violence at work and cardiovascular disease (CVD).

Methods and results

Participants were 79 201 working men and women, aged 18–65 years and free of CVD and were sourced from three cohort studies from Sweden and Denmark. Exposure to workplace bullying and violence was measured at baseline using self-reports. Participants were linked to nationwide health and death registers to ascertain incident CVD, including coronary heart disease and cerebrovascular disease. Study-specific results were estimated by marginal structural Cox regression and were combined using fixed-effect meta-analysis. Nine percent reported being bullied at work and 13% recorded exposure to workplace violence during the past year. We recorded 3229 incident CVD cases with a mean follow-up of 12.4 years (765 in the first 4 years). After adjustment for age, sex, country of birth, marital status, and educational level, being bullied at work vs. not was associated with a hazard ratio (HR) of 1.59 [95% confidence interval (CI) 1.28–1.98] for CVD. Experiencing workplace violence vs. not was associated with a HR of 1.25 (95% CI 1.12–1.40) for CVD. The population attributable risk was 5.0% for workplace bullying and 3.1% for workplace violence. The excess risk remained similar in analyses with different follow-up lengths, cardiovascular risk stratifications, and after additional adjustments. Dose–response relations were observed for both workplace bullying and violence (P_trend < 0.001). There was only negligible heterogeneity in study-specific estimates.

Conclusion

Bullying and violence are common at workplaces and those exposed to these stressors are at higher risk of CVD.