Educational inequalities in disability pensioning – the impact of illness and occupational, psychosocial, and behavioural factors: The Nord-Trøndelag Health Study (HUNT)

Abstract

Illness and occupational, psychosocial, and behavioural factors explained some of the educational inequalities in disability pensioning. However, considerable inequalities remain after accounting for these factors. The higher incidence of disability pensioning in women than men and the small or non-existing educational inequalities in the oldest women calls for a gender perspective in future research.

Do working conditions explain the increased risks of disability pension among men and women with low education? A follow-up of Swedish cohorts

“…This explanation has been empirically supported in several studies to a greater or lesser extent (4,(12)(13)(14)(15). Correspondingly, both physical and psychosocial working conditions are considered to be established risk factors for disability pension (16)(17)(18).…”

“…While a majority of these studies have shown quite similar associations among men and women, a few have shown weaker associations among women (4,6). Studies examining disability pension by type of diagnosis have suggested roughly the same association between education and disability pension for psychiatric diagnoses as for disability pension overall, but not as strong as in the case of musculoskeletal diagnoses (1,7).…”

“…Low educational attainment has been associated with earlier exit from the labor market through disability pension in a number of studies (1)(2)(3)(4)(5)(6). While a majority of these studies have shown quite similar associations among men and women, a few have shown weaker associations among women (4,6).…”

“…Unlike most previous studies, the explanatory contributions from working conditions were examined with adjustment made for potentially confounding differences between individuals as measured in school. The analyses were stratified by sex to highlight possibly dissimilar associations between education and disability pensions among men and women, which has been previously suggested in the literature (4,6). We studied associations both with overall disability pension and disability pension due to musculoskeletal and psychiatric conditions, which are the largest diagnosis groups.…”

The contribution of major diagnostic causes to socioeconomic differences in disability retirement

“…Socioeconomic differences in DR have been found to be larger among younger than older disability retirees (30). Smaller socioeconomic differences in older age groups may be a consequence of the lower socioeconomic status of people having retired due to disability at a younger age.…”