Evaluating sickness absence duration by musculoskeletal and mental health issues: a retrospective cohort study of Scottish healthcare workers.

Objectives: Sickness absence (SA) among healthcare workers is associated with occupational and non-occupational risk factors and impacts employee health, healthcare delivery and patient health. At the same time, healthcare is one of the employment sectors with the highest rates of work-related ill health in the UK. Musculoskeletal (MSK) and mental health (MH) issues are leading causes of SA, but there is a lack of research on how certain MSK/MH conditions impact on SA duration.

Health, lifestyle and employment beyond state-pension age.

Background: The factors influencing one's choice to retire vary, with financial and health considerations being some of the main factors impacting or associated with people's timing of retirement. The aim of the study is to investigate the differences in current health and health-related behaviours, such as smoking, drinking and exercising, between people who kept on working beyond state-pension age and those who retired before or at state-pension age.

Methods: Data from six waves (2003, 2008-2012) of the Scottish Health Survey (SHeS) are used.

Changing gender roles and attitudes and their implications for well-being around the new millennium.

Purpose: Given evidence that gender role attitudes (GRAs) and actual gender roles impact on well-being, we examine associations between GRAs, three roles (marital status, household chore division, couple employment) and psychological distress in working-age men and women. We investigate time-trends reflecting broader social and economic changes, by focusing on three age groups at two dates.

Methods: We used British Household Panel Survey data from 20- to 64-year-olds in heterosexual couple households in 1991 (N = 5,302) and 2007 (N = 6,621).

Positive associations between consumerism and tobacco and alcohol use in early adolescence: cross-sectional study.

Background: There is concern about the negative impact of modern consumer culture on young people's mental health, but very few studies have investigated associations with substance use. In those which have, positive associations have been attributed to attempts to satisfy the unmet needs of more materialistic individuals.

Objectives: This study examines associations between different dimensions of consumerism and tobacco and alcohol use among Scottish early adolescents.

Cardiovascular disease and air pollution in Scotland: no association or insufficient data and study design?

Background: Coronary heart disease and stroke are leading causes of mortality and ill health in Scotland, and clear associations have been found in previous studies between air pollution and cardiovascular disease. This study aimed to use routinely available data to examine whether there is any evidence of an association between short-term exposure to particulate matter (measured as PM₁₀, particles less than 10 micrograms per cubic metre) and hospital admissions due to cardiovascular disease, in the two largest cities in Scotland during the years 2000 to 2006.

Methods: The study utilised an ecological time series design, and the analysis was based on overdispersed Poisson log-linear models.

Association of life course socioeconomic disadvantage with future problem drinking and heavy drinking: gender differentials in the west of Scotland.

Objective: To examine gender differentials in the association between life course socioeconomic disadvantage and the risk of exceeding internationally recognised weekly and daily guidelines for 'sensible' alcohol consumption and problem drinking.

Methods: A population-representative cohort study of 1,218 men and women from the west of Scotland, UK was conducted. Data on life course socioeconomic position were collected in 1987/1988 (at around 35 years of age).