No abstract

Our finding that the share of remaining life at age 50 spent in work is increasing implies that pressure on the welfare system is not as severe as is commonly thought.

The effects of socioeconomic position on disability retirement may not be fully captured if the pathways between the various subdomains are disregarded. Our results suggest that efforts to delay and prevent disability retirement should focus on lifestyle and cognitive factors associated with education, as well as on factors associated with social class such as working conditions and power resources.

Part-time sick leave is used in many countries to enhance return to work, however its effectiveness -especially at the early stage of work disability -is not known. This quasi-experiment utilizing propensity score matching shows that part-time sick leave, started during the first 12 weeks of work disability, enhances return to work and increases work participation over a 2-year period.

ObjectivesWe aimed to provide previously unestablished information on population-based differences in cause-specific sickness absence trends between occupational classes and further between four large industrial sectors within the different occupational classes while controlling for other socioeconomic factors and employment patterns. We focused on the period 2005–2013, during which the labour market underwent large economic and structural changes in many countries.DesignRegister-based panel data study.SettingLarge representative datasets on Finnish wage earners aged 25–59 years.Outcome measureAnnual risk of sickness absence (>10 working days) based on repeated logistic regression.ResultsBetween 2005 and 2013, the proportion of employees with sickness absence decreased. Occupational class differences in sickness absence trends varied by disease group. Overall, the decrease in absences was smallest among lower non-manual employees. Sickness absence levels were highest in the health and social work sector and in the manufacturing sector within the non-manual and manual classes, respectively. Absences due to musculoskeletal diseases decreased temporarily during the peak of the economic recession in 2009, particularly in the manufacturing sector within the manual class. The decrease in absences due to musculoskeletal diseases was smallest in the trade sector within the lower occupational classes. Overall, education, income and employment patterns partly explained the differences in the absence levels, but not in the trends.ConclusionsWe found a complex interplay between the associations of occupational class and industrial sector with sickness absence trends. During the economic recession, absences due to musculoskeletal diseases decreased temporarily in a segment of wage earners who were known to have been hit hard by the recession. However, the trend differences were not explained by the measured structural changes in the characteristics of the study population. Both occupational class and industrial sector should be taken into account when tackling problems of work disability.