Publications by authors named "Morten Wahrendorf"

Objectives: SARS-CoV-2 infections were unequally distributed during the pandemic, with those in disadvantaged socioeconomic positions being at higher risk. Little is known about the underlying mechanism of this association. This study assessed to what extent educational differences in SARS-CoV-2 infections were mediated by working from home.

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Objectives: Mexico's population aging is occurring in the context of social changes such as increased educational attainment and occupational shifts from agriculture to service and industry. The current study compares cognitive function between two birth cohorts of Mexican adults aged 60-76 to determine if population-level changes in education and occupation type contribute to cohort differences in cognitive function.

Methods: We used the Mexican Health and Aging Study to examine adults aged 60-76 in 2001 (men: 2,309; women: 2,761) and 2018 (men: 2,842; women: 3,825).

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Introduction: During the COVID-19 pandemic, occupation was assumed to play a central role in the occurrence of infection and disease. For Germany, however, there are only a few studies that analyse occupational differences in risk of COVID-19, COVID-19-associated hospitalisation, and mortality.

Methods: The study uses longitudinal health insurance data from the research database of the Institute for Applied Health Research (InGef) with information on 3.

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Background: Studies show that a disadvantaged socioeconomic position (SEP) and psychosocial stress at work are both independently associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD). But it is not clear if the effect of stress at work on CVD varies by SEP.

Methods: We used baseline and follow-up data from the French population-based cohort study CONSTANCES, including 48 383 employed women and men aged 30-70 years.

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Research from a range of disciplines highlights the need to adopt a life course perspective that considers earlier life courses to explain outcomes in later life (e.g. later life health, cognitive ageing or retirement behaviour).

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Importance: Adults in disadvantaged socioeconomic positions have elevated risks of a severe course of COVID-19, but it is unclear whether this holds true for children.

Objective: To investigate whether young people from disadvantaged households have a higher risk of COVID-19 hospitalization and whether differences were associated with comorbidities that predispose children to severe courses.

Design, Setting, And Participants: This population-based cohort study included all children and adolescents (aged 0-18 years) who were enrolled in a statutory health insurance carrier in Germany during the observation period of January 1, 2020, to July 13, 2021.

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International evidence of socioeconomic inequalities in COVID-19 outcomes is extensive and growing, but less is known about the temporal dynamics of these inequalities over the course of the pandemic. We systematically searched the Embase and Scopus databases. Additionally, several relevant journals and the reference lists of all included articles were hand-searched.

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Background: Regional labour markets and their properties are named as potential reasons for regional variations in levels of SARS-CoV-2 infections rates, but empirical evidence is missing.

Methods: Using nationwide data on notified laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infections, we calculated weekly age-standardised incidence rates (ASIRs) for working-age populations at the regional level of Germany's 400 districts. Data covered nearly 2 years (March 2020 till December 2021), including four main waves of the pandemic.

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Background: Employees have witnessed rising trend in work stress over the last few decades. However, we know a little about country differences in those trends. Our article fills this gap in the literature by examining heterogeneities in trends in working conditions by country groups defined by their amount of investment into labor market policy (LMP) programs.

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Article Synopsis
  • Work and family roles can be conflicting, especially during young adulthood, leading to both stress and potential mental health benefits.
  • The study examines the employment, parenthood, and partnership paths of men and women between ages 25 and 40, using data from SHARE and ELSA.
  • Findings suggest that those who combined work and family roles are less likely to experience depression later in life, with variations based on gender and regional employment contexts.
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Over the course of the second pandemic wave in late 2020, new infections with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 shifted from the most affluent to the most deprived regions of Germany. This study investigated how this trend in infections played out for deaths due to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) by examining area-level socio-economic disparities in COVID-19-related mortality during the second pandemic wave in Germany. The analysis was based on nationwide data on notified deaths, which were linked to an area-based index of socio-economic deprivation.

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Background: Job instability and disadvantaged work were shown to be associated with poor mental health, but few studies analyzed these conditions in a life course perspective. In this study, adverse employment histories are retrospectively assessed and linked to self-reported depression. Furthermore, indirect effects of later stressful psychosocial work in terms of effort-reward imbalance are investigated.

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Background: Most studies on the health impact of occupational stress use single-point measures of stress at work. This study analyses the associations of properties of entire employment trajectories over an extended time period with a composite score of allostatic load (AL).

Methods: Data come from the French CONSTANCES cohort, with information on adverse employment histories between ages 25 and 45 and a composite score of AL (based on 10 biomarkers, range 0-10) among people aged 45 or older (47 680 women and 45 035 men).

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Background And Objective: It has not been adequately answered whether the spread of SARS-CoV‑2 is influenced by social and economic factors. Earlier studies generally looked at cumulative incidences up to the analysis date and did not take into account the development of the spread over time. This study therefore focuses on the regional dynamic of new infections and their relationship to socioeconomic factors.

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Background: Employees in a low socio-economic position (SEP) are more likely to leave the labour market after medical rehabilitation for health reasons than those in a better social position. So far, almost nothing is known about whether certain types of rehabilitative care can reduce this inequality in rehabilitation success. This paper examines whether certain types of care modify the SEP's influence on return-to-work (RTW).

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Background And Objective: Unemployment is related to poverty and is a risk factor for poor health. The present study investigates if unemployment increases the risk of COVID-19 hospitalization for men and women of working age in Germany.

Methods: The study uses the health insurance data from AOK Rhineland/Hamburg (from 1 January 2020 until 18 June 2020) of 1,288,745 persons aged between 18 and 65.

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Accumulated evidence on health-adverse effects of stressful psychosocial and physical work environments is considered a major breakthrough in recent social epidemiological research. However, research on adverse health effects of repeated exposure over time is lacking. In this contribution we analyse associations of characteristics of adverse employment histories with stressful psychosocial and physical current working conditions.

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Background: Research suggests that areas with high unemployment have lower rates of sickness absence, but the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. One assumption is that when unemployment is high people are more likely to work while being sick (discipline hypothesis). Against this background, we investigate the association between regional unemployment and sickness presenteeism.

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Experiences with acute respiratory diseases which caused virus epidemics in the past and initial findings in the research literature on the current COVID-19 pandemic suggest a higher SARS-CoV-2 infection risk for socioeconomically disadvantaged populations. Nevertheless, further research on such a potential association between socioeconomic status and SARS-CoV-2 incidence in Germany is required. This article reports on the results of a first Germany-wide analysis of COVID-19 surveillance data to which an area-level index of socioeconomic deprivation was linked.

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Social epidemiological research describes correlations between socioeconomic status and the population's risk to become diseased or die. Little research of such correlations for SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 has so far been conducted. This scoping review provides an overview of the international research literature.

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Unwanted sexual attention (UWSA) and sexual harassment (SH) are prevalent experiences for women in working life and often accompanied by poor health. Despite increasing numbers especially of young people working in insecure and irregular employment settings, there is little empirical evidence if such precarious arrangements are associated with UWSA or SH. To investigate this, we used a representative sample of the European working population consisting of 63,966 employees in 33 countries who participated in the European Working Conditions Survey in 2010 or 2015.

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