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Midlife job profiles and disabilities in later life: a 28-year follow-up of municipal employees in Finland

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Abstract

Purpose

Occupations during adult life may have long-term effects and subsequently increase the risk of disability in old age. We investigated the associations between job profile groups in midlife and disability in old age for women and men.

Methods

This prospective 28-year follow-up study (1981–2009) examined 2998 municipal employees (1892 women and 1106 men) aged 44–58 years at baseline. A detailed analysis of the demands of 88 occupations based on interviews and observations at the work places was made at baseline. Thirteen job profile clusters emerged. Questionnaire information on health, lifestyle and socio-demographic factors was collected at baseline. In 2009, five Activities of Daily Living and seven Instrumental Activities of Daily Living tasks were assessed. A sum score of ‘0–12’ was calculated using 12 dichotomous tasks where ‘0’ indicates no difficulties in any tasks and ‘1–12’ indicates increasing disability. Negative binomial regression was used to calculate rate ratios (RR) and their 95 % confidence intervals (CIs) for disability due to midlife job profiles.

Results

After adjusting for age, socioeconomic, lifestyle and health-related characteristics, women in auxiliary (RR 2.1, 95 % CI 1.4–3.2), home care (2.1, 1.4–3.2), kitchen supervision (2.0, 1.1–3.6) and office (1.6, 1.1–2.4) job profiles had a higher risk of disability in later life than those in administrative jobs. Auxiliary (1.5, 1.1–2.9) and technical supervision (1.7, 1.1–2.7) job profiles carried an increased risk among men.

Conclusion

Midlife job profiles mainly linked with physically heavy work were strong predictors of disability in later life. In women, office work also increased the risk of disability.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to Timo Törmäkangas (Department of Health Sciences, University of Jyväskylä) for his support during the statistical analysis of this study. Prakash KC was partly funded by the Finnish Cultural Foundation (SKR) with a personal grant ‘[Grant Number: 00140388, Central Fund].’ Monika E.von Bonsdorff was funded by the Academy of Finland ‘[Grant Number: 250681].’

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Health Sciences, University of Tampere, 33014, Tampere, Pirkanmaa Region, Finland

    K. C. Prakash, Subas Neupane, Päivi Leino-Arjas & Clas-Håkan Nygård

  2. Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, Helsinki, Finland

    Päivi Leino-Arjas & Jorma Seitsamo

  3. Gerontology Research Center and Department of Health Sciences, University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland

    Mikaela B. von Bonsdorff, Taina Rantanen & Monika E. von Bonsdorff

  4. Juhani Ilmarinen Consulting Ltd, Helsinki, Finland

    Juhani Ilmarinen

  5. Gerontology Research Center, University of Tampere, 33014, Tampere, Finland

    K. C. Prakash, Subas Neupane & Clas-Håkan Nygård

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  1. K. C. Prakash
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  2. Subas Neupane
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  4. Mikaela B. von Bonsdorff
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  6. Monika E. von Bonsdorff
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  8. Juhani Ilmarinen
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  9. Clas-Håkan Nygård
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Correspondence to K. C. Prakash.

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Prakash, K.C., Neupane, S., Leino-Arjas, P. et al. Midlife job profiles and disabilities in later life: a 28-year follow-up of municipal employees in Finland. Int Arch Occup Environ Health 89, 997–1007 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00420-016-1133-7

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