Work participation and risk factors for health-related job loss among older workers in the Health and Employment after Fifty (HEAF) study: evidence from a 2-year follow-up period
Work participation and risk factors for health-related job loss among older workers in the Health and Employment after Fifty (HEAF) study: evidence from a 2-year follow-up period
Introduction: Rapidly increasing population old age dependency ratios create a growing economic imperative for people to work to older ages. However, rates of older worker employment are only increasing slowly. Amongst a cohort of contemporary older workers, we investigated risk factors for health-related job loss (HRJL) over 2 years of follow-up. Methods: HEAF is a population based cohort study of adults in England (aged 50-64 years at baseline) who provided information about socio-demographic characteristics, lifestyle, and work at baseline and annual follow-ups. Exits from paid work were mapped and risk factors for HRJL explored in a multiple-record survival dataset by Cox proportional hazards models. Results: 2475 (75%) men and 2668 (66%) women were employed; 115 (4.6%) men and 182 (6.8%) women reported HRJL. Employment as road transport drivers/in vehicle trades (men), or as teaching/education/nursing/midwifery professionals or in caring personal services (women), was more frequent among people exiting work for health-related versus non-health-related reasons. Principal socio-demographic and lifestyle risk factors for HRJL were: struggling financially (men and women); low physical activity (men); being overweight or obese, and current smoking (women). Mutually adjusted work-related risk factors for HRJL were job dissatisfaction, and not coping with the physical (hazard ratio [95% confidence interval]: men 5.34[3.40,8.39]; women 3.73[2.48,5.60]) or mental demands (women only, 2.02[1.38,2.96]) of work. Conclusions: Employment characteristics of contemporary older workers differ by sex. Job satisfaction and perceived ability to cope with the physical and mental demands of work are key determinants of HRJL which employers could potentially influence to enable work to older ages.
Syddall, Holly Emma
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D'angelo, Stefania
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Ntani, Georgia
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Stevens, Martin
6ed230b2-7eaa-478b-80f7-ea75234bb76f
Harris, E. Clare
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Linaker, Catherine
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Walker-Bone, Karen
ad7d1336-ed2c-4f39-ade5-da84eb412109
17 September 2020
Syddall, Holly Emma
a0181a93-8fc3-4998-a996-7963f0128328
D'angelo, Stefania
13375ecd-1117-4b6e-99c0-32239f52eed6
Ntani, Georgia
9b009e0a-5ab2-4c6e-a9fd-15a601e92be5
Stevens, Martin
6ed230b2-7eaa-478b-80f7-ea75234bb76f
Harris, E. Clare
3e4bd946-3f09-45a1-8725-d35e80dd7971
Linaker, Catherine
6c6d1b90-ee40-4c96-8b2e-b06efbe030ae
Walker-Bone, Karen
ad7d1336-ed2c-4f39-ade5-da84eb412109
Syddall, Holly Emma, D'angelo, Stefania, Ntani, Georgia, Stevens, Martin, Harris, E. Clare, Linaker, Catherine and Walker-Bone, Karen
(2020)
Work participation and risk factors for health-related job loss among older workers in the Health and Employment after Fifty (HEAF) study: evidence from a 2-year follow-up period.
PLoS ONE, 15 (9), [e0239383].
(doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0239383).
Abstract
Introduction: Rapidly increasing population old age dependency ratios create a growing economic imperative for people to work to older ages. However, rates of older worker employment are only increasing slowly. Amongst a cohort of contemporary older workers, we investigated risk factors for health-related job loss (HRJL) over 2 years of follow-up. Methods: HEAF is a population based cohort study of adults in England (aged 50-64 years at baseline) who provided information about socio-demographic characteristics, lifestyle, and work at baseline and annual follow-ups. Exits from paid work were mapped and risk factors for HRJL explored in a multiple-record survival dataset by Cox proportional hazards models. Results: 2475 (75%) men and 2668 (66%) women were employed; 115 (4.6%) men and 182 (6.8%) women reported HRJL. Employment as road transport drivers/in vehicle trades (men), or as teaching/education/nursing/midwifery professionals or in caring personal services (women), was more frequent among people exiting work for health-related versus non-health-related reasons. Principal socio-demographic and lifestyle risk factors for HRJL were: struggling financially (men and women); low physical activity (men); being overweight or obese, and current smoking (women). Mutually adjusted work-related risk factors for HRJL were job dissatisfaction, and not coping with the physical (hazard ratio [95% confidence interval]: men 5.34[3.40,8.39]; women 3.73[2.48,5.60]) or mental demands (women only, 2.02[1.38,2.96]) of work. Conclusions: Employment characteristics of contemporary older workers differ by sex. Job satisfaction and perceived ability to cope with the physical and mental demands of work are key determinants of HRJL which employers could potentially influence to enable work to older ages.
More information
Accepted/In Press date: 7 September 2020
e-pub ahead of print date: 17 September 2020
Published date: 17 September 2020
Additional Information:
Funding Information:
KWB The HEAF study is funded by grant awards from Versus Arthritis (formerly Arthritis Research UK) (19817 and 20665) and the Medical Research Council programme grant (MC_UU_12011/5); and the Economic and Social Research Council and Medical Research Council jointly (ES/L002663/1); the study is coordinated by the MRC Lifecourse Epidemiology Unit, Southampton. https://www.versusarthritis.org https://mrc.ukri.org/ https://esrc.ukri.org/ The funders did not play any role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
Publisher Copyright:
Copyright: © 2020 Syddall et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
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Local EPrints ID: 443989
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/443989
ISSN: 1932-6203
PURE UUID: 7c19f95b-7b3a-4ecd-a921-a5866537163c
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Date deposited: 18 Sep 2020 16:36
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 03:30
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Author:
Stefania D'angelo
Author:
E. Clare Harris
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