Publications by authors named "Karina Undem"

Objectives: The aim was to develop a gender-specific European job exposure matrix (EuroJEM) for occupational physical workload and study its predictive validity for musculoskeletal pain in four European cohorts.

Methods: National, gender-specific JEM from Finland, France, Norway and Sweden, based on self-reported exposure information, were evaluated for similarities in exposures, exposure definitions, and occupational coding. The EuroJEM harmonized five exposures: heavy lifting, faster breathing due to heavy workload, kneeling/squatting, forward bent posture, and working with hands above shoulder level.

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Article Synopsis
  • The Exposome Project aims to explore how various occupational exposures affect health, focusing on noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) to set research priorities.
  • A narrative review was conducted to analyze occupational risk factors linked to six NCD groups, identifying over 200 exposures with varying levels of evidence regarding their health associations.
  • Key findings indicate that certain exposures like diesel engine exhaust have consistent links to lung cancer, while others require more research to better understand their impact on health.
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Objectives: This study aimed to quantify the duration of work participation and reasons for working years lost, according to gender and educational attainment, among a Norwegian population.

Methods: Register data on labor market attachment between 2000-2015 were obtained from Statistics Norway. We included five cohorts: individuals turning 20 (N=323 333), 30 (N=386 006), 40 (N=388 962), 50 (N=358 745), and 60 years (N=284 425) between 1 January 2000 and 31 December 2005.

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Objectives: This study aimed to compare the risk of labor market marginalization among refugees across different host countries of resettlement and examine the moderating role of birth country and length of stay on these associations.

Methods: Cohorts of refugees and native-born individuals aged 19-60 in Sweden (N=3 605 949, 3.5% refugees) and Norway (N=1 784 861, 1.

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Background: In the last decade, interest in working life expectancy (WLE) and socioeconomic differences in WLE has grown considerably. However, a comprehensive overview of the socioeconomic differences in WLE is lacking. The aim of this review is to systematically map the research literature to improve the insight on differences in WLE and healthy WLE (HWLE) by education, occupational class and income while using different ways of measuring and estimating WLE and to define future research needs.

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Objectives: This study aimed to estimate the average individual effect of the company-level Norwegian Agreement on a More Inclusive Working Life (IA Agreement) on individuals' (i) sustained return to work after a sickness absence (SA) episode, and (ii) recurrent SA.

Methods: Using register data, 79 253 men and 94 914 women born in Norway 1967-1976 were followed for one year between 2005 and 2010 after returning to work from an SA episode (>16 days). Weighted Cox proportional hazard models analysed time to first exit from work by companies' IA status (IA/non-IA).

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We identified occupations with a high incidence of prolonged sickness absence (SA) in Nordic employees and explored similarities and differences between the countries. Utilizing data from national registers on 25-59-year-old wage-earners from Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden, we estimated the gender- and occupation-specific age-adjusted cumulative incidence of SA due to any cause, musculoskeletal diseases and mental disorders. To increase the comparability of occupations between the countries, we developed a Nordic crosswalk for occupational codes.

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Objectives: To reduce sickness absence (SA) and increase work participation, the tripartite Agreement for a More Inclusive Working Life (IA) was established in Norway in 2001. IA companies have had access to several measures to prevent and reduce SA. Our aim in this paper was to estimate the average effect of having access to IA at the time of entering a first SA on later return-to-work (RTW) and on time spent in other work-related states.

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Background: Work exposures are known predictors of withdrawal from employment, but the associations between work exposures and withdrawal may vary with gender. This study evaluated gender differences in associations between biomechanical and psychosocial work exposures and age of withdrawal from paid employment among older workers in Norway.

Methods: 77,558 men and 67,773 women (born 1949-1953) were followed from age 62 until withdrawal from paid employment or end of follow-up in 2016 (up to five years follow-up).

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Background: Cervical cancer screening participation is suboptimal in most settings. We assessed whether human papillomavirus (HPV) self-sampling may increase screening participation among long-term non-attenders in Norway.

Methods: A pragmatic randomised controlled trial with participation as the primary outcome was initiated in the national cervical screening programme in March 2019.

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