COVID-19 risk by work-related factors: pooled analysis of individual linked data from 14 cohorts.

Background: SARS-CoV-2 infection rates vary by occupation, but the association with work-related characteristics (such as home working, keyworker or furlough) are not fully understood and may depend on ascertainment approach. We assessed infection risks across work-related characteristics and compared findings using different ascertainment approaches.

Methods: Participants of 14 UK-based longitudinal cohort studies completed surveys before and during the COVID-19 pandemic about their health, work and behaviour.

Long COVID and financial outcomes: evidence from four longitudinal population surveys.

Background: Long-term sequelae of COVID-19 (long COVID) include muscle weakness, fatigue, breathing difficulties and sleep disturbance over weeks or months. Using UK longitudinal data, we assessed the relationship between long COVID and financial disruption.

Methods: We estimated associations between long COVID (derived using self-reported length of COVID-19 symptoms) and measures of financial disruption (subjective financial well-being, new benefit claims, changes in household income) by analysing data from four longitudinal population studies, gathered during the first year of the pandemic.

Effect of trade unions on the mental health of UK workers before and during the COVID-19 pandemic: a longitudinal analysis using Understanding Society data.

Background: Although trade union membership rates have continuously decreased over the past 30 years, about 50% of UK employees are still represented by a union. Yet, studies on the association between collective bargaining and workers' mental health are sparse, especially in the pandemic context. This study examines differences on UK workers' mental health due to trade union presence and membership between pre-pandemic and pandemic periods.

Moderating effect of country-level health determinants on the association between hobby engagement and mental health: cross-cohort multi-level models, meta-analyses, and meta-regressions.

Background: Theories from anthropology, evolutionary psychology, and sociology have focused on the potential adaptive benefits of hobby engagement for mental health in older adults. However, previous studies have used data from single countries, potentially biased by specific measurement and methodological approaches, cohort effects, or cultural specificities. Whether there are genuine benefits for mental health in older adults cross-culturally remains unknown.

Hobby engagement and mental wellbeing among people aged 65 years and older in 16 countries.

Growing aging populations pose a threat to global health because of the social and psychological challenges they experience. To mitigate this, many countries promote hobby engagement to support and improve mental health. Yet, it remains unclear whether there is consistency in benefits across different national settings.

Associations between SARS-CoV-2 infection and subsequent economic inactivity and employment status: pooled analyses of five linked longitudinal surveys.

Introduction: Following the acute phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, record numbers of people became economically inactive (i.e., neither working nor looking for work), or non-employed (including unemployed job seekers and economically inactive people).

Home working and social and mental wellbeing at different stages of the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK: Evidence from 7 longitudinal population surveys.

Background: Home working has increased since the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic's onset with concerns that it may have adverse health implications. We assessed the association between home working and social and mental wellbeing among the employed population aged 16 to 66 through harmonised analyses of 7 UK longitudinal studies.

Methods And Findings: We estimated associations between home working and measures of psychological distress, low life satisfaction, poor self-rated health, low social contact, and loneliness across 3 different stages of the pandemic (T1 = April to June 2020 -first lockdown, T2 = July to October 2020 -eased restrictions, T3 = November 2020 to March 2021 -second lockdown) using modified Poisson regression and meta-analyses to pool results across studies.

The UK Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme and smoking, alcohol consumption and vaping during the COVID-19 pandemic: evidence from eight longitudinal population surveys.

Background: Employment disruptions can impact smoking and alcohol consumption. During the COVID-19 pandemic, many countries implemented furlough schemes to prevent job loss. We examine how furlough was associated with smoking, vaping and alcohol consumption in the UK.

Association between home working and mental health by key worker status during the Covid-19 pandemic. Evidence from four British longitudinal studies.

Little is known about the relationship between homeworking and mental health during the Covid-19 pandemic and how it might differ by keyworker status. To understand this relationship, we use longitudinal data collected over three time points during the pandemic from three British cohort studies born in 1958 (National Child Development Study), 1970 (British Cohort Study) and 1989-90 (Next Step) as well as from a population-based study stratified by four age groups (Understanding Society). We estimate the association between life satisfaction, anxiety, depression, and psychological distress and homeworking by key worker status using mixed effects models with maximum likelihood estimation to account for repeated measurements across the pandemic, allowing intercepts to vary across individuals after controlling for a set of covariates including pre-pandemic home working propensities and loneliness.

A shift in women's health? Older workers' self-reported health and employment settings during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Background: The first wave of COVID-19 has had a massive impact on work arrangements settings in many European countries with potential effects on health that are likely to vary across gender.

Methods: Focusing on the workforce aged 50 and over in 27 European countries using data from SHARE wave 8 (N = 11,221), the study applies a generalized logit mixed-effects model to assess the relationship between negative and positive change in self-reported health since the start of the pandemic and change in employment settings using an interaction effect between gender and employment arrangements to distinguish their specific association by gender after controlling for socio-economic covariates and multicollinearity.

Results: Female respondents have higher probabilities to declare a positive health when working fully or partially from home or when temporarily and permanently unemployed.

Factors influencing older nurses' decision making around the timing of retirement: An explorative mixed-method study.

Aim: This study aimed to understand factors influencing decision making of older nurses around timing of retirement.

Background: Global nursing shortages require flexible nurse retention strategies.

Methods: An explanatory sequential mixed-method approach: nurses across seven health care organisations within one integrated care system responded to an online survey (n = 524).

The role of labour unions in explaining workers' mental and physical health in Great Britain. A longitudinal approach.

Objectives: To assess whether there are mental and physical health benefits of being employed in a workplace where there is a union or staff association recognized by the management or being a member of such a union.

Methods: Using four waves [W2 (2010-11), W4 (2012-13), W6 (2014-15), W8 (2016-18)] from Understanding Society (UKHLS), we use a propensity score matching method and apply a latent growth modeling on the original dataset and on the matched dataset to estimate the impact of change in union presence and union membership between wave 2 and wave 4 for the employed population on the change in mental health (Mental Component Summary - MCS) and physical health (Physical Component Summary - PCS), after controlling for socioeconomic characteristics, age and sector of activity.

Results: Collective negotiation within the workplace plays a statistically significant role in supporting workers' mental and, to a greater degree, physical health.

Are there health benefits of being unionized in late career? A longitudinal approach using HRS.

Objective: To assess whether unionization prevents deterioration in self-reported health and depressive symptoms in late career transitions.

Methods: Data come from the Health and Retirement Study (N = 6475). The change in self-perceived health (SPH) and depressive symptoms (CESD) between wave 11 and wave 12 is explained using an interaction effect between change in professional status from wave 10 to wave 11 and unionization in wave 10.

How nurses and midwives feel about revalidation: preliminary survey results.

The introduction in 2016 of the Nursing and Midwifery Council revalidation process, which involves several standardised steps, has represented a major change for UK nurses and midwives, and is now a compulsory requirement of reregistration. This article presents preliminary results of a survey about revalidation, undertaken in June 2016 at Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust, Dartford, focusing on how nurses and midwives feel about the process. The article considers the effect of different variables, including pay band, seniority and directorate, on nurses' and midwives' perceptions of revalidation, and suggests it is regarded more positively by senior, more experienced staff than by those who are less experienced.