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ObjectivesTo identify trajectories of work ability from pre-COVID to post-COVID-19 pandemic period and to examine work unit characteristics associated with these trajectories.MethodsThe study population was a cohort of Finnish public sector employees (n=54 651) followed from 2016 until 2022. We used trajectory analysis to identify trajectories of work ability and multinomial regression to examine their associations with prepandemic work unit characteristics and pandemic-related changes at workplaces.ResultsWe identified three trajectories of work ability: (1) suboptimal work ability decreasing over time (12%); (2) relatively consistent good work ability (73%) and (3) consistent optimal work ability (15%). The strongest associations with belonging to the suboptimal work ability trajectory were found for employees in work units characterised by high job strain (OR 2.29, 95% CI 1.82 to 2.88), poor team climate (OR 0.74, 95% CI 0.64 to 0.86) and low organisational justice (OR 0.64, 95% CI 0.57 to 0.72) when compared with the most optimal trajectory. The least favourable work ability trajectory was also associated with team reorganisation (OR 1.22, 95% CI 1.04 to 1.44) and a low share of those working from home (OR 0.86, 95% CI 0.78 to 0.94) during the pandemic.ConclusionPrepandemic psychosocial risk factors and pandemic-induced changes at work were associated with poor and declining work ability during the COVID-19 pandemic. Employers and occupational health services should better identify and support vulnerable employees to enhance their work participation.

[...]as the response rates to questionnaire data are decreasing internationally, and there are widely known biases in self-reported data such as 'common method bias' (9, 10), we may need additional data sources. [...]as Rönnblad et al note, precarious employees are almost by definition, difficult to follow longitudinally. [...]Van Aerden and her colleagues (11) have used latent class cluster analysis of survey data and found that it is empirically possible to identify separate clusters of employment quality based on information on employment contract, income level, uncompensated work, long working hours, schedule unpredictability, involuntary parttime employment, training opportunities, information on occupational health and safety issues, and employee involvement. [...]the dynamic nature of the labor market sets requirements to future research so that we need to consider changes of employment relationships over time, across the individual's working life course.

Study objectivesTo examine the association between sleep duration and sleep difficulties with different types and causes of workplace and commuting injuries.MethodsThe data were derived from the Finnish Public Sector study including 89.543 participants (178.309 person-observations). Participants reported their sleep duration and sleep difficulties between 2000 and 2012. These were linked to occupational injury records from the national register maintained by the Federation of Accident Insurance Institutions. Risk of injuries was followed up 1 year after each study wave. Logistic regression analysis with generalised estimating equations (GEEs) was used to examine the association between sleep duration/difficulties and risk of injuries, and multinomial logistic regression with GEE was used to examine the association with injury types and causes.ResultsBoth sleep duration and difficulties were associated with injuries. Employees with short sleep (≤6.5 hours) had 1.07-fold odds of workplace injuries (95% CI 1.00 to 1.14) and 1.14 times higher odds of commuting injuries (95% CI 1.04 to 1.26) compared with employees with normal sleep duration. For employees with disturbed sleep, the corresponding ORs were 1.09-fold (95% CI 1.02 to 1.17) and 1.14-fold (95% CI 1.04 to 1.26) compared with those without sleep difficulties, respectively. The risk of commuting injuries was higher among those who had difficulty in falling asleep (OR 1.29, 95% CI 1.07 to 1.55), woke up too early (OR 1.11, 95% CI 1.00 to 1.23) or had non-restorative sleep (OR 1.18, 95% CI 1.05 to 1.33).ConclusionsShort sleep duration and sleep difficulties are associated with slightly increased risk of workplace and commuting injuries.

OBJECTIVE: This meta-analysis aimed to identify sociodemographic, lifestyle, work-related and health risk factors for voluntary early old-age retirement among middle-aged workers. METHODS: Searches were conducted in PubMed, Web of Science, PsycInfo, and Scopus from their inception until February 2025. Observational longitudinal studies involving workers aged 40–64 years were included. Two reviewers evaluated the methodological quality of the studies. A random-effects meta-analysis was performed, and heterogeneity and publication bias were assessed. RESULTS: From 13 899 publications, 23 longitudinal studies (N=2 270 430 participants) were included. The following factors were associated with an increased risk of early old-age retirement: age [hazard ratio (HR) 1.35, 95% CI (confidence interval) 1.12–1.63 per year increase], overweight or obesity (HR 1.10, 95% CI 1.03–1.17), physically demanding work (HR 1.29, 95% CI 1.05–1.59), low job control (HR 1.14, 95% CI 1.11–1.17), low influence at work (HR 1.10, 95% CI 1.02–1.19), low organizational justice (HR 1.27, 95% CI 1.10–1.46), lack of skills and knowledge development (HR 2.16, 95% CI 1.63–2.85), suboptimal self-rated general health (HR 1.22, 95% CI 1.12–1.34), chronic physical conditions (HR 1.11, 95% CI 1.05–1.17), and depressive symptoms (HR 1.34, 95% CI 1.12–1.61). Conversely, a lower risk was found among individuals who were unmarried, separated, or widowed (HR 0.74, 95% CI 0.60–0.91). CONCLUSIONS: This meta-analysis underscores the impact of overweight, physical and psychosocial work factors, lacking skills and knowledge development and health conditions on early old-age retirement risk among middle-aged workers. Targeted interventions to encourage healthy lifestyles, foster a supportive work environment, and promote mental health may help to reduce early old-age retirement risk.

OBJECTIVE: This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to identify risk factors for unemployment among middle-aged workers. METHODS: Searches were carried out in PubMed, Web of Science and Google Scholar until November 2024, focusing on observational longitudinal studies that involved workers aged 40–64 years. Three reviewers evaluated the quality of the studies. A random-effects meta-analysis was employed, and heterogeneity and publication bias were assessed. RESULTS: Out of 10 432 reports, 19 longitudinal studies (N=374 585 participants) were included in the review. The meta-analysis identified multiple risk factors associated with unemployment, including suboptimal self-rated general health [hazard ratio (HR) 1.44, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.21–1.70], mental health conditions [HR 1.48, 95% CI 1.30–1.68, particularly depressive symptoms (HR 1.42, 95% CI 1.14–1.76)], low job control (HR 1.30, 95% CI 1.17–1.43), and lack of physical activity (HR 1.56, 95% CI 1.13–2.15). Additionally, a higher risk of unemployment was observed among individuals with ≤12 years of education (HR 1.17, 95% CI 1.00–1.36), those who are unmarried, separated, or widowed (HR 1.43, 95% CI 1.14–1.79), and immigrants (HR 1.26, 95% CI 1.11–1.44). Age, gender, smoking, alcohol consumption, musculoskeletal disorders, cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, digestive diseases, diabetes, neoplasm, and limitations in daily activities did not increase unemployment risk. CONCLUSIONS: This meta-analysis highlights the impact of mental health conditions, low job control, and lack of leisure-time physical activity on unemployment risk among middle-aged workers. Interventions aimed at improving mental health and increasing job control and physical activity could reduce unemployment risk.

ObjectivesTo investigate the concurrent changes in part-time work and sickness absence (SA) in healthcare. Another aim was to investigate the role of age and sex on different concurrent trajectory groups.DesignProspective cohort study.SettingPublic hospital districts (n=10) and cities (n=11) in Finland.ParticipantsPayroll-based objective working hour data of the healthcare sector in Finland for 28 969 employees in 2008–2019 were used. The final sample included those working shifts with 3 consecutive years of data and without baseline (≥14 days) SA.Primary outcomesPart-time work (yes or no) and months of SA.MeasuresGroup-based trajectory modelling to identify concurrent changes in part-time work, and months of SA while controlling the time-variant amount of night work and multinomial regression models for relative risk (RR) with 95% CIs were used.ResultsFour-group trajectory model was the best solution: group 1 (61.2%) with full-time work and no SA, group 2 (16.9%) with slowly increasing probability of part-time work and low but mildly increasing SA, group 3 (17.6%) with increasing part-time work and no SA, and group 4 (4.3%) with fluctuating, increasing part-time work and highest and increasing levels of SA. Men had a lower (RR 0.49–0.75) and older age groups had a higher likelihood (RRs 1.32–3.79) of belonging to trajectory groups 2–4.ConclusionsMost of the sample were in the trajectory group with full-time work and no SA. The probability of part-time work increased over time, linked with concurrent low increase or no SA. A minor group of employees had both an increased probability of part-time work and SA. Part-time work and other solutions might merit attention to promote sustainable working life among healthcare employees.

While characteristics of psychosocial work environment have traditionally been studied separately, we propose an alternative approach that treats psychosocial factors as interacting elements in networks where they all potentially affect each other. In this network analysis, we used data from a prospective occupational cohort including 10,892 participants (85% women; mean age 47 years) and repeated measurements of seven psychosocial work characteristics (job demands, job control, job uncertainty, team climate, effort-reward imbalance, procedural justice and interactional justice) assessed in 2000, 2004, 2008 and 2012. Results from multilevel longitudinal vector autoregressive models indicated that job demands as well as interactional and procedural justice were most broadly associated with the subsequent perceptions of the work-related psychosocial factors (high out-Strength), suggesting these factors might be potentially efficient targets of workplace interventions. The results also suggest that modifying almost any of the studied psychosocial factors might be relevant to subsequent perceptions of effort-reward imbalance and interactional justice at the workplace.

Background The COVID-19 pandemic was a significant health risk and resulted in increased sickness absence during the pandemic. This study examines whether a history of COVID-19 infection is associated with a higher risk of subsequent sickness absence. Methods In this prospective cohort study, 32,124 public sector employees responded to a survey on COVID-19 infection and lifestyle factors in 2020 and were linked to sickness absence records before (2019) and after (2021–2022) the survey. Study outcome was annual sickness absence defined as the total number of sickness absence days and the number of short sickness absence spells (< 10 days) and long sickness absence spells (10–365 days). We used negative binomial regression adjusting for sex, age, employment characteristics, body mass index, health behaviors in 2020 and sickness absence in 2019. We examined differences in sickness absence between socioeconomic statuses (SES), measured by occupational titles from employers’ records. Results A self-reported COVID-19 infection in 2020 was associated with higher subsequent risk of sickness absence in 2021: Adjusted Incidence Rate Ratio (IRR) compared to those not reporting COVID-19 was 1.23, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.10–1.37 for sickness absence days, 1.29, 1.20–1.38 for short sickness absence spells and 1.20, 1.04–1.37 for long spells. The association was strongest in employees with intermediate SES: 1.45, 1.20–1.77 days, 1.42, 1.26–1.61 short spells, and 1.30, 1.03–1.64 long spells. For employees with low and high SES, an association was observed only for short spells. Conclusions Employees who reported contracting first-wave COVID-19 infection had higher rates of sickness absence in the following year. This excess risk was most consistently observed in employees with intermediate socioeconomic status (e.g. office workers, registered nurses, and social workers).

OBJECTIVE: Leisure-time physical activity (PA) has been hypothesized to reduce the likelihood of occupational injuries, but it is unclear whether this association varies between workplace and commuting injuries. The aim of this study was to examine the association between PA and risk of workplace and commuting injuries. METHODS: Data were derived from the Finnish Public Sector study including 82 716 person-observations (48 116 participants). PA was requested repeatedly in four questionnaire surveys between 2000–2012. The average level of PA from two subsequent questionnaires was used to assess long-term PA. To obtain a 1-year incidence of injuries, participants were linked to occupational injury records from the national register. Logistic regression analysis with generalized estimating equations was used to examine the association between PA and injury risk. The analysis was adjusted for age, sex, education, work schedule, job demand, sleep difficulties, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and depression for workplace and commuting injuries, and workplace injuries were additionally adjusted for physical heaviness of an occupation and injury risk by occupation. RESULTS: Higher level of PA was associated with a lower risk of workplace injuries compared to inactive participants [odds ratio (OR) 0.85, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.73–0.98]. This association was most marked in the ≥50-year-old age group (OR 0.78, 95% CI 0.64–0.99). No association between the PA and the risk for commuting injuries was observed. CONCLUSION: Higher PA is associated with lower risk of workplace injuries particularly among older employees.

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to investigate (i) the risk of work disability (>10-day sickness absence spell or disability pension) due to common mental disorders (CMD) among social workers compared with other health and social care, education, and non-human service professionals and (ii) whether the risk was mediated by job stress. METHODS: A cohort of 16 306 public sector professionals in Finland was followed using survey data from baseline (2004 or if not available, 2008) on job stress [job strain or effort-reward imbalance (ERI)] and register data on work disability due to CMD from baseline through 2011. A Cox proportional hazards model was used to analyze the risk of work disability due to CMD between three occupation-pairs in a counterfactual setting, controlling for age, sex, job contract, body mass index, alcohol risk use, smoking, and physical inactivity. RESULTS: Social workers’ job stress was at higher level only when compared to education professionals. Thus, the mediation hypothesis was analyzed comparing social workers to education professionals. Social workers had a higher risk of work disability due to CMD compared with education professionals [hazard ratio (HR) 2.08, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.58–2.74]. This HR was partly mediated by job strain (24%) and ERI (12%). Social workers had a higher risk of work disability than non-human service professionals (HR 1.54, 95% CI 1.13–2.09), but not compared with other health and social care professionals. CONCLUSIONS: Job stress partly mediated the excess risk of work disability among social workers only in comparison with education professionals.