Job strain and the risk of disability pension due to musculoskeletal disorders, depression or coronary heart disease: a prospective cohort study of 69 842 employees
Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 05/25/2012
Mantyniemi A et al. – High job strain is a risk factor for disability pension due to musculoskeletal diseases.
Methods- Survey responses to questions about job strain from 48598 (response rate, 68%) public sector employees in Finland from 2000 to 2002 were used to determine work unit- and occupation-based scores.
- These job strain scores were assigned to all the 69842 employees in the same work units or occupations.
- All participants were linked to the disability pension register of the Finnish Centre of Pensions with no loss to follow-up.
- Cox proportional hazard models were used to calculate HRs and their 95% CIs for disability pensions adjusted by demographic, work unit characteristics and baseline health in analyses stratified by sex and socioeconomic position.
- During a mean follow-up of 4.6 years, 2572 participants (4%) were granted a disability pension.
- A one-unit increase in job strain was associated with a 1.3- to 2.4-fold risk of requiring a disability pension due to musculoskeletal diseases in men, women and manual workers, depending on the measure of job strain (work unit or occupation based).
- The risk of disability pension due to cardiovascular diseases was increased in men with high job strain but not in women nor in any socioeconomic group.
