Work ability of the Czech workforce aged 50+ and the relationship between selected demographic and anthropometric variables

Abstract

Background: An aging workforce is a global phenomenon with significant implications for European countries. Interventions facilitating the active performance of work until retirement age have consequently been developed. A new concept of work ability, which comprehensively describes the way to achieve a better correspondence between aging and work, has been created in Finland as of the end of the twentieth century. It also includes an objective measurement of work ability based on the index of work ability. The use of methods of objectification of work ability upon determination of the WAI index is still at an early stage in the Czech Republic. Objectives: To determine the WAI values for different demographic groups of the Czech population older than 50 years of age, the relationship between working abilities with demographic and anthropometric characteristics and diseases of an individual. Methods: The research tool is a questionnaire to measure the Work Ability Index (WAI), translated into the Czech language. The survey involved 361 respondents from six companies and organizations, including a group of 60 unemployed persons registered at the Labor Office. The data collection took place from September 2014 to February 2015. The software Statistica Cz 12 was used for data evaluation. Results: The average value of WAI in the case of the sample was 39.4 ± 7.03 and attained higher than the Dutch reference values. The statistical tests showed that men achieve higher WAI than women, WAI decreases with a higher amount of BMI and the number of diseases diagnosed by a physician. A statistically significant relationship between WAI and the type of work performed was also found. Conclusions: This paper presents data and their assessment obtained by measuring work ability through the WAI index in the first 361 workers of six companies and organizations in the fields of banking, government, healthcare and industrial sectors. It also presents current knowledge concerning the objectification of work ability under real conditions for Czech employers through the method of determining the WAI index.

Identifying contemporary early retirement factors and strategies to encourage and enable longer working lives: A scoping review

“…The social norm that dictates what every worker should always be able to do at work also needs to be adjusted, particularly as work index studies are revealing wide variations in work ability among people of all ages (Hlaďo, Pokorný, & Petrovová, ; Liebermann et al, ). The social norm of work should therefore be modernised, and with this done through a better understanding and application of work accommodation principles and labour laws that mandate work accommodation so disabled people can be employed and people can continue to work despite new or increasing disabilities as they age (Liebermann et al, ).…”

Work Ability among Upper-Secondary School Teachers: Examining the Role of Burnout, Sense of Coherence, and Work-Related and Lifestyle Factors

“…Work ability was assessed using the Czech version of the Work Ability Index (WAI) [ 32 , 100 ]. This self-reported instrument combines a subjective assessment of one’s ability to cope with the physical and psychosocial demands of work with information about diagnosed diseases, functional limitations, incapacity for work, and psychological resources.…”

“…It has been found that work ability decreases rapidly with age [ 8 , 27 , 28 , 29 ] and physical health problems [ 30 , 31 ]. Czech research on gender has shown that women tend to have lower work ability [ 32 ]. However, the international findings on the relationship between gender and work ability are ambiguous [ 29 , 33 ].…”

Índice de mecanización agrícola de la Parroquia Crucita, Manabí - Ecuador

“…Los componentes socioeconómicos son factores de alta incidencia en la adopción e implementación de tecnologías, (Vásquez Pérez, 2016), los resultados obtenidos evidenciaron que la población agrícola se encuentra en edad adecuada, pero con tendencia al envejecimiento como lo mencionan Beyer et al (2017) y Loor-Sácido et al (2019), conllevando a la perdida de aspectos como fortaleza, destreza física, conocimientos y habilidades adquiridas a lo largo de la vida productiva (Bravo, 2016;Hlaďo et al, 2017).…”