No abstract

Occupational factors are sometimes invoked to explain gender differences in the associations between shiftwork and health. We examined prospective associations between shiftwork and health, and between shiftwork and sick leave, separately for workers in female-dominated (FD) and male-dominated (MD) occupations; and whether the associations remained after controlling for psychosocial working conditions. Data from six waves of the Swedish Longitudinal Occupational Survey of Health were used to examine prospective associations with a four-year time lag between work schedule (daywork versus shiftwork involving nightwork; and daywork versus shiftwork not involving nightwork) and self-reports of depressive symptoms; incidents of short-and long-term sick leave; self-rated health; and sleep disturbance. Dynamic panel models with fixed effects were applied, using structural equation modeling. The analyses included adjustments for personal circumstances and employment conditions; and additional adjustments for psychosocial working conditions (psychological and emotional job demands; job control; worktime control; social support at work; persecution at work; and threats or violence at work). Within FD occupations, shiftwork that included night work (as compared to daytime work) predicted higher incidence of short-term sick leave (<1 week); within MD occupations, shiftwork that included nightwork predicted greater symptoms of mild depression. Despite notable differences in psychosocial working conditions between dayworkers and shiftworkers, both associations remained significant after adjustments. Thus, it was not confirmed that the associations between shiftwork and health reflected poorer working conditions of shiftworkers in either FD or MD occupations, although the possibility remains that the associations were due to other unmeasured aspects of the working environment.

BackgroundResearch has shown that perceived unfairness contributes to higher rates of sickness absence. While shorter, but more frequent periods of sickness absence might be a possibility for the individual to get relief from high strain, long-term sickness absence might be a sign of more serious health problems. The Uncertainty Management Model suggests that justice is particularly important in times of uncertainty, e.g. perceived job insecurity. The present study investigated the association between interpersonal and informational justice at work with long and frequent sickness absence respectively, under conditions of job insecurity.MethodsData were derived from the 2010, 2012, and 2014 biennial waves of the Swedish Longitudinal Occupational Survey of Health (SLOSH). The final analytic sample consisted of 19,493 individuals. We applied repeated measures regression analyses through generalized estimating equations (GEE), a method for longitudinal data that simultaneously analyses variables at different time points. We calculated risk of long and frequent sickness absence, respectively in relation to interpersonal and informational justice taking perceptions of job insecurity into account.ResultsWe found informational and interpersonal justice to be associated with risk of long and frequent sickness absence independently of job insecurity and demographic variables. Results from autoregressive GEE provided some support for a causal relationship between justice perceptions and sickness absence. Contrary to expectations, we found no interaction between justice and job insecurity.ConclusionsOur results underline the need for fair and just treatment of employees irrespective of perceived job insecurity in order to keep the workforce healthy and to minimize lost work days due to sickness absence.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s12889-017-4899-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Retirement transition was not associated with symptoms of depression. Higher educational level and lower subjective social status may predict higher depressive symptom levels the years around old age retirement.

The present study indicates that a job promotion could lead to decreased SRH and increased symptoms of depression in a 2-4-year perspective. Associations appear to differ for women and men.