A 16-year follow-up study of physical capacity in relation to perceived workload among ageing employees

Abstract

The main purpose of this study was to ascertain musculoskeletal and cardiovascular capacity among ageing employees in relation to workload over a period of 16 years. The data were obtained by physical capacity tests and ratings of perceived exertion (RPE) during working day. The study group consisted of 89 subjects, who were all employed in the municipal branch and were on average 51.9 years old at the beginning of the follow-up period in 1981 and 67.3 years in 1997, when the most of the subjects had retired (with only two subjects still working). During the 16-year follow-up period, age-related decline in physical capacity was observed. Nevertheless the improvement in flexibility of spine and in isometric trunk muscle strength compared with the same age subjects was more common among the subjects with high workload than among the subjects with low workload. However, among the subjects with high workload, physical capacity was poorer than among the subjects with low workload, especially among the women. The results suggest the conclusion that there are differences in workers' physical capacity in relation to their perceived workload during working life. These differences remained when the subjects had retired. Interestingly, those who had high workload had lower muscle strength than those who had low workload. This may indicate that high physical workload does not have any training effect on the muscle strength of ageing workers.

Does a history of physical exposures at work affect hand-grip strength in midlife? A retrospective cohort study in Denmark

“…Existing evidence is limited by methodological problems due to categorization and misclassification of physical activity at work and during leisure-time, and also activity related to transportation and household work. Earlier studies have shown ambiguous results: LTPA was beneficial to HGS among middle-aged men (25) whereas no association was seen between baseline physical activity or persistent physical activity and HGS in midlife in a recent follow-up study (16). Interaction between physical exposures at work and physical activity during leisure-time is a possible bias, but we found no interaction between exposures and LTPA except in one exposure group among men.…”

“…A few longitudinal studies have had contradictory results. Savinainen et al (15) found no association between perceived physical workload at baseline and HGS after 22 years of follow-up (mean age 67.3 at follow-up); while Stenholm et al (16) found that self-reports of physical work at baseline were associated with lower HGS at follow-up 22 years later (mean age 48 at follow-up). However, changes in exposure or total amount of exposure during the follow-up period were not taken into account in these studies.…”

“…Stenholm et al (16) found that the number of chronic diseases was not associated with HGS but, on the other hand, specific diseases (such as diabetes, hypertension, and asthma) increased the decline in HGS during follow-up. Including a variety of chronic diseases without weighting the diseases or analyzing them separately could be a bias in our study.…”

Changes in working conditions and physical health functioning among midlife and ageing employees

“…In addition, previous studies have indicated that physically demanding working conditions, such as repetitive monotonous work or lifting (8)(9)(10)(11)(12), and psychosocially demanding working conditions, such as low job control or high job demands (13)(14)(15)(16), are associated with poorer physical functioning among midlife and older employees. However, evidence on the health effects of changes in these working conditions is insufficient, especially for physical working conditions.…”

Muskuloskeletal aldring, arbejdsevne og "sundhedsbrøken"

“…Flere studier har vist at varigheden af de fysiske påvirkninger har betydning for udvikling af kroniske bevaegeapparatsproblemer og nedsat funktionsevne (Leino-Arjas, Solovieva, Riihimaki, Kirjonen & Telama, 2004;Savinainen, Nygard & Ilmarinen, 2004). De Zwart et al anfører, at årsagen til, at fysiske påvirkninger i arbejdet kan få laengerevarende indvirkning på den fysiske funktionsevne, er en proces hvor akutte forandringer kan udvikle sig til kroniske forandringer, hvis der ikke er den nødvendige tid til restitution (de Zwart, Frings-Dresen & van Dijk, 1995).…”