Sickness absence as a risk factor for job termination, unemployment, and disability pension among temporary and permanent employees.

Objectives: This study examined sickness absence as a risk factor for job termination, unemployment, and disability pension among temporary and permanent workers.

Methods: Prospective cohort study with data on employment contract and sickness absence in 1996, job termination by 1997, and employment status in 1997 and 2000 for 19,093 temporary and 41,530 permanent public sector employees.

Results: For women aged 40 years or less and for women over 40, a high sickness absence increased the risk of job termination among temporary employees (OR 1.

Work stress, weight gain and weight loss: evidence for bidirectional effects of job strain on body mass index in the Whitehall II study.

Objective: Previous research has focused on overall associations between work stress and body mass index (BMI) ignoring the possibility that stress may cause some people to eat less and lose weight and others to eat more. Using longitudinal data, we studied whether work stress induced weight loss in lean individuals and weight gain in overweight individuals.

Design: Prospective cohort study.

Influence of change in psychosocial work characteristics on sickness absence: The Whitehall II Study.

Objectives: To study the influence of change in self perceived psychosocial work characteristics on subsequent rates of sickness absence.

Methods: Prospective cohort study of British civil service employees. Job control, job demands, and work social supports were measured in 1985/88 and in 1991/93.

Dual source support and control at work in relation to poor health.

Background And Aim: Social support and decision authority in relation to health has been examined in extensive research. However, research on the role of different constellations of support sources is conspicuously lacking. The aim of the present study is to describe the health of employees in eight contrasting situations that differ with regard to support from superiors and from workmates and with regard to decision authority.

Justice at work and reduced risk of coronary heart disease among employees: the Whitehall II Study.

Background: Justice is a fundamental value in human societies, but its effect on health is poorly described. We examined justice at work as a predictor of coronary heart disease (CHD).

Methods: Prospective occupational cohort study of 6442 male British civil servants aged 35 to 55 years without prevalent CHD at baseline in phase 1 (1985-1988).

Socioeconomic position in childhood and adult cardiovascular risk factors, vascular structure, and function: cardiovascular risk in young Finns study.

Objective: To examine the association of childhood socioeconomic position (SEP) with adult cardiovascular risk factors, vascular structure, and vascular function in a contemporary population of young adults.

Design: Population based prospective cohort study with baseline assessment in 1980.

Setting: Finland.

Paranasal sinus fungus ball and surgery: a review of 175 cases.

Objective: To analyze the surgical results after Functional Endoscopic Sinus Surgery (FESS) in patients with paranasal sinus fungus ball.

Material And Methods: Retrospective analysis of the results of FESS performed in 175 patients suffering from paranasal sinus fungus balls.

Results: All maxillary (n = 150), sphenoidal (n = 20), and ethmoidal (n = 4) locations have been treated exclusively by FESS to obtain a wide opening of the affected sinuses, allowing a careful extraction of all fungal material without removal of the inflamed mucous membrane.

Labor market trajectories and health: a four-year follow-up study of initially fixed-term employees.

With the growth of atypical employment, there is increasing concern about the potential health-damaging effects of unstable employment. This prospective study of Finnish public-sector employees in 1998-2002 examined labor market trajectories and changes in health. At entry, all participants had a fixed-term job contract.

The role of cognitive ability (intelligence) in explaining the association between socioeconomic position and health: evidence from the Whitehall II prospective cohort study.

Associations among cognitive ability, socioeconomic position, and health have been interpreted to imply that cognitive ability could explain social inequalities in health. The authors test this hypothesis by examining three questions: Is cognitive ability related to health? To what extent does it explain social inequalities in health? Do measures of socioeconomic position and cognitive ability have independent associations with health? Relative indices of inequality were used to estimate associations, using data from the Whitehall II study (baseline, 1985-1988), a British prospective cohort study (4,158 men and 1,680 women). Cognitive ability was significantly related to coronary heart disease, physical functioning, and self-rated health in both sexes and additionally to mental functioning in men.

Self-reported economic difficulties and coronary events in men: evidence from the Whitehall II study.

Background: Numerous studies have demonstrated social inequalities in coronary heart disease using a variety of measures of social position. In this study we examine associations between persistent economic difficulties and serious coronary events. Our aim is to assess whether these associations are (i) explained by other measures of socioeconomic status, and (ii) mediated by psychosocial, behavioural and biological factors.

[Diffuse nasal polyposis and comorbidity: study of 65 cases treated by endonasal endoscopic surgery].

Introduction: Nasal polyposis is an inflammatory disorder which pathophysiology remains unclear. Several clinical associations are described according to co-morbidities (asthma, allergy..

[Retropharyngeal and lateral pharyngeal abscesses in children].

Objective: Review of the diagnostic and management of retropharyngeal and lateral pharyngeal abscesses in children.

Patients And Methods: Retrospective study of 5 children's cases hospitalized during year 2003.

Results: Diagnosis included CT scan which is often helpful to differentiate cellulitis from abscesses.

A comparison of self-reported sickness absence with absences recorded in employers' registers: evidence from the Whitehall II study.

Aim: To compare self-reported sickness absence days in the last 12 months with recorded absences from the employers' registers for the same period.

Methods: Self-reported sickness absence data over the 12 months preceding baseline (1985-88) were compared with absence records from the employers' registers over the same period for 2406 women and 5589 men, participants in the Whitehall II study of British civil servants. Associations with self-rated health, longstanding illness, minor psychiatric disorder, physical illness, and prevalent coronary heart disease at baseline were determined.

Self-reported job insecurity and health in the Whitehall II study: potential explanations of the relationship.

This paper examines the potential of demographic, personal, material and behavioural characteristics, other psychosocial features of the work environment and job satisfaction to explain associations between self-reported job insecurity and health in a longitudinal study of British white-collar civil servants. Strong associations were found between self-reported job insecurity and both poor self-rated health and minor psychiatric morbidity. After adjustment for age, employment grade and health during a prior phase of secure employment, pessimism, heightened vigilance, primary deprivation, financial security, social support and job satisfaction explained 68% of the association between job insecurity and self-rated health in women, and 36% in men.

Working while ill as a risk factor for serious coronary events: the Whitehall II study.

Objectives: Although sick, some people take no time off work, a phenomenon called "sickness presenteeism." This study examined the association between sickness presenteeism and incidence of serious coronary events.

Methods: The analyses were based on a cohort of 5071 male British civil servants without previous myocardial infarction.

Diffuse nasal polyposis and endonasal endoscopic surgery: long-term results, a 65-case study.

Objective: To analyze the efficacy of a standardized surgical procedure in patients with nasal polyposis.

Study Design: Prospective study of nonrandomized cases from a single institution.

Methods: An inception cohort of 65 consecutive patients with nasal polyposis observed from January 1994 to December 1997.

Chronic invasive fungal rhinosinusitis: two new cases and review of the literature.

Background: Chronic invasive fungal rhinosinusitis is rare in the immunocompetent patient. Few cases have been published except for in a specific geographic area (Sudan, India).

Methods And Results: We reported two new cases of chronic invasive fungal rhinosinusitis due to Aspergillus, which was successfully treated, to analyze the different clinical, radiological, and mycological criteria.

Organisational justice and change in justice as predictors of employee health: the Whitehall II study.

Objective: Organisational justice has been proposed as a new way to examine the impact of psychosocial work environment on employee health. This article studied the justice of interpersonal treatment by supervisors (the relational component of organisational justice) as a predictor of health.

Design: Prospective cohort study.

Socioeconomic trajectories across the life course and health outcomes in midlife: evidence for the accumulation hypothesis?

Background: Recent research in social epidemiology has established the importance of considering the accumulation of advantage and disadvantage across the life course when examining adult health outcomes. This paper examines (1) accumulation across trichotomous categories of socioeconomic position (SEP), and (2) accumulation in analysis stratified by adult SEP.

Methods: Data are from the Whitehall II study.

Workplace expansion, long-term sickness absence, and hospital admission.

Background: Downsizing has in previous studies, as well as in public debate, been associated with increased sickness absence. No studies have, however, looked at the long-term relation between workplace expansion and morbidity.

Methods: We investigated exposure to personnel change during 1991-96 in relation to long-term (90 days or longer) medically certified sickness absence and hospital admission for specified diagnoses during 1997-99 in 24?036 participants with a complete employment record in the biennial national Swedish Work Environment Surveys from 1989 to the end of 1999.

Organisational downsizing, sickness absence, and mortality: 10-town prospective cohort study.

Objective: To examine whether downsizing, the reduction of personnel in organisations, is a predictor of increased sickness absence and mortality among employees.

Design: Prospective cohort study over 7.5 years of employees grouped into categories on the basis of reductions of personnel in their occupation and workplace: no downsizing (< 8% reduction), minor downsizing (8-18%), and major downsizing (> 18%).

From insecure to secure employment: changes in work, health, health related behaviours, and sickness absence.

Aims: To determine whether change in employment status (from fixed term to permanent employment) is followed by changes in work, health, health related behaviours, and sickness absence.

Methods: Prospective cohort study with four year follow up. Data from 4851 (710 male, 4141 female) hospital employees having a fixed term or permanent job contract on entry to the study were collected at baseline and follow up.

[Mucocele of the sphenoid sinus].

Sphenoid sinus mucoceles are pseudocystic expansile slow-growing processes that arise within the sphenoid sinus. A dynamic process of bone resorption and erosion results in a pseudo-tumoral development. Clinical features and potential risks are related to mass effect with compression of the optic nerves and intracranial extension of the process.

Temporary employment and risk of overall and cause-specific mortality.

The number of nonpermanent employees is rising, but mortality in this group has received little attention. The authors examined the associations between temporary employment and all-cause and cause-specific mortality. Longitudinal data from 10 towns in Finland related to 26,592 men and 65,759 women, of whom 1,332 died between 1990 and 2001.