Impact of depressive symptoms on worklife expectancy: a longitudinal study on Danish employees

Abstract

ObjectiveDepressive symptoms are associated with sickness absence, work disability and unemployment, but little is known about worklife expectancy (WLE). This study investigates the impact of depressive symptoms on the WLE of a large sample of Danish employees.MethodsWe used occupational health survey data of 11 967 Danish employees from 2010 and linked them with register data on salary and transfer payments from 2010 to 2015. Depressive symptoms were self-reported using the Major Depression Inventory. We used multistate data and a life table approach with Cox proportional hazard modelling to estimate the WLE of employees, expressed by time in work, unemployment and sickness absence. Separate analyses were conducted for sex and employees with a voluntary early retirement pension scheme. Using age as time axis, we used inverse probability weights to account for differences in educational level, sector, body mass index, smoking habits and loss of employment during sickness absence.ResultsThe WLE of employees reporting depressive symptoms was shorter compared with those not reporting depressive symptoms; that is, the expected time in unemployment and sickness absence was longer, while the expected time in work was shorter. The shorter WLE was most pronounced in women; for example, a 40-year-old woman with depressive symptoms can expect 3.3 years less in work, 0.8 years more in unemployment and 0.7 years more in sickness absence. Employees with a voluntary early retirement pension scheme showed an even lower WLE.ConclusionsOur study showed a meaningful impact of depressive symptoms on the WLE of Danish employees using a multistate framework.

High physical work demands and working life expectancy in Denmark

“…For example, one might assume that high physical work demands lead to poor lifestyle and chronic disease, but poor lifestyles may also influence what job type a person has. 26 The study uses a large register-based sample with no information available on individual lifestyle factors. Sixth, the study does not include other physical exposures like chemical and psychosocial exposures that are likely to influence the WLE results, for example, cause additional time of sickness absence, for certain occupations.…”

Live longer, retire later? Developments of healthy life expectancies and working life expectancies between age 50–59 and age 60–69 in Europe

“…Third, while we previously looked at the situation at age 50, we now focus on partial life expectancies between age 50-59 and 60-69, respectively. Focusing on these two age intervals provides a Table 1 Descriptive statistics for men (weighted with sample weights) from SHARE wave 7 in 2017 (sample size, share of men without activity limitations, good physical health, and good cognition ages 50 years and older) and life expectancy at age 60 in 2017, LFP rates for age group 60-64 in 2017, and the current general retirement age in 2019 * Represents the retirement age of the national pension, not the earnings-related pension Sources: SHARE, Eurostat; for retirement ages: https ://www.etk.fi/en/the-pensi on-syste m/inter natio nal-compa rison /retir ement -ages/ (Dudel et al 2018;Lorenti et al 2019;Lozano and Rentería 2019;Pedersen et al 2020;Robroek et al 2020), with several of them including information on certain health aspects like disability, depressive symptoms or self-perceived health (de Wind et al 2018;Lievre et al 2007;Pedersen et al 2019;van der Noordt et al 2019;Wubulihasimu et al 2015). The choice of health dimensions in our investigation is based on their relevance for individuals' performance in the labour market.…”

The influence of occupational class and physical workload on working life expectancy among older employees

“…Studies differ in how many different states for WYL are included. Some studies have studied WYL only for disability benefits ( 22 , 23 ), while other studies have included other labor market states, eg, unemployment and sickness absence ( 20 ).…”