Publications by authors named "Peter Westerholm"
Background: Elevated apolipoprotein B (apoB) and elevated apoB/apoA-1 ratio increase the risk of myocardial infarction (MI) and stroke, whereas high apoA-1 is protective. We study how these apolipoproteins are associated with major adverse cardiovascular events (MACEs), whether apoA-1 contributes to this association, and whether abnormal values occur decades before such events develop.
Methods And Findings: In the Swedish AMORIS (Apolipoprotein-related MOrtality RISk) cohort study, 137,100 men and women aged 25-84 years were followed an average 17.
Objectives: To examine the association between cognitively stimulating work and subsequent risk of dementia and to identify protein pathways for this association.
Design: Multicohort study with three sets of analyses.
Setting: United Kingdom, Europe, and the United States.
Importance: Evidence on alcohol consumption as a risk factor for dementia usually relates to overall consumption. The role of alcohol-induced loss of consciousness is uncertain.
Objective: To examine the risk of future dementia associated with overall alcohol consumption and alcohol-induced loss of consciousness in a population of current drinkers.
Objective: To examine the relation between long working hours and change in body mass index (BMI).
Methods: We performed random effects meta-analyses using individual-participant data from 19 cohort studies from Europe, US and Australia (n = 122,078), with a mean of 4.4-year follow-up.
Objective: To examine whether physical inactivity is a risk factor for dementia, with attention to the role of cardiometabolic disease in this association and reverse causation bias that arises from changes in physical activity in the preclinical (prodromal) phase of dementia.
Design: Meta-analysis of 19 prospective observational cohort studies.
Data Sources: The Individual-Participant-Data Meta-analysis in Working Populations Consortium, the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research, and the UK Data Service, including a total of 19 of a potential 9741 studies.
Background: Obesity increases the risk of several chronic diseases, but the extent to which the obesity-related loss of disease-free years varies by lifestyle category and across socioeconomic groups is unclear. We estimated the number of years free from major non-communicable diseases in adults who are overweight and obese, compared with those who are normal weight.
Methods: We pooled individual-level data on body-mass index (BMI) and non-communicable diseases from men and women with no initial evidence of these diseases in European cohort studies from the Individual-Participant-Data Meta-Analysis in Working Populations consortium.
Background: Although some cardiovascular disease prevention guidelines suggest a need to manage work stress in patients with established cardiometabolic disease, the evidence base for this recommendation is weak. We sought to clarify the status of stress as a risk factor in cardiometabolic disease by investigating the associations between work stress and mortality in men and women with and without pre-existing cardiometabolic disease.
Methods: In this multicohort study, we used data from seven cohort studies in the IPD-Work consortium, initiated between 1985 and 2002 in Finland, France, Sweden, and the UK, to examine the association between work stress and mortality.
Introduction: Higher midlife body mass index (BMI) is suggested to increase the risk of dementia, but weight loss during the preclinical dementia phase may mask such effects.
Methods: We examined this hypothesis in 1,349,857 dementia-free participants from 39 cohort studies. BMI was assessed at baseline.
The Tale of Asbestos in Sweden 1972-1986-The Pathway to a Near-Total Ban.
Int J Environ Res Public Health
November 2017
This paper provides a narrative of the national intervention strategy in Sweden aimed to restrict the industrial use of asbestos. For many years, asbestos was imported for widespread industrial use, resulting in large amounts throughout Swedish society. In 1972, the whistle was blown in a Communist Party parliamentary motion describing asbestos as a health hazard and requesting action to prohibit its use.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAims: Studies suggest that people who work long hours are at increased risk of stroke, but the association of long working hours with atrial fibrillation, the most common cardiac arrhythmia and a risk factor for stroke, is unknown. We examined the risk of atrial fibrillation in individuals working long hours (≥55 per week) and those working standard 35-40 h/week.
Methods And Results: In this prospective multi-cohort study from the Individual-Participant-Data Meta-analysis in Working Populations (IPD-Work) Consortium, the study population was 85 494 working men and women (mean age 43.
Purpose: Effort-reward imbalance (ERI) is a well-tested work-related stress model with three components, the two extrinsic components "efforts" and "rewards" and the one intrinsic component "overcommitment". While an imbalance between "efforts" and "rewards" leads to strain reactions, "work-related overcommitment" (OC) has been described as a personal characteristic with a set of attitudes, behaviours, and emotions reflecting excessive striving combined with a strong desire for approval. However, the question whether OC is a personality trait or a response pattern sensitive to changes in the work context (state) is still open.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Although overweight and obesity have been studied in relation to individual cardiometabolic diseases, their association with risk of cardiometabolic multimorbidity is poorly understood. Here we aimed to establish the risk of incident cardiometabolic multimorbidity (ie, at least two from: type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease, and stroke) in adults who are overweight and obese compared with those who are a healthy weight.
Methods: We pooled individual-participant data for BMI and incident cardiometabolic multimorbidity from 16 prospective cohort studies from the USA and Europe.
Background: In aging societies, zest for work may be pivotal when deciding to stay occupationally active longer. Psychosocial work stress is a prevalent public health problem and may have an impact on zest for work. Work over-commitment (WOC) is a personal coping strategy for work stress with excessive striving and a health risk.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Epidemiologic evidence for work stress as a risk factor for coronary heart disease is mostly based on a single measure of stressful work known as job strain, a combination of high demands and low job control. We examined whether a complementary stress measure that assesses an imbalance between efforts spent at work and rewards received predicted coronary heart disease.
Methods: This multicohort study (the "IPD-Work" consortium) was based on harmonized individual-level data from 11 European prospective cohort studies.
Background: Job insecurity has been associated with certain health outcomes. We examined the role of job insecurity as a risk factor for incident diabetes.
Methods: We used individual participant data from 8 cohort studies identified in 2 open-access data archives and 11 cohort studies participating in the Individual-Participant-Data Meta-analysis in Working Populations Consortium.
Objective: Recommendations regarding physical activity typically include both leisure time and occupational physical activity. However, the results from previous studies on occupational physical activity and the association with myocardial infarction have been inconsistent. The aim of this study was to investigate if occupational physical activity is associated with the risk of myocardial infarction.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The amount and perception of domestic work may affect satisfaction with everyday life, but further knowledge is needed about the relationship between domestic work division and health and well-being.
Aim: To describe the division of, and satisfaction with, domestic work and responsibility for home/family in adults living with a partner. A further aim was to investigate the associations between these aspects and self-rated life satisfaction and health.
Background: Working longer than the maximum recommended hours is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, but the relationship of excess working hours with incident cancer is unclear.
Methods: This multi-cohort study examined the association between working hours and cancer risk in 116 462 men and women who were free of cancer at baseline. Incident cancers were ascertained from national cancer, hospitalisation and death registers; weekly working hours were self-reported.
Introduction: Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a common heart rhythm disorder. Several life-style factors have been identified as risk factors for AF, but less is known about the impact of work-related stress. This study aims to evaluate the association between work-related stress, defined as job strain, and risk of AF.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Long working hours might increase the risk of cardiovascular disease, but prospective evidence is scarce, imprecise, and mostly limited to coronary heart disease. We aimed to assess long working hours as a risk factor for incident coronary heart disease and stroke.
Methods: We identified published studies through a systematic review of PubMed and Embase from inception to Aug 20, 2014.
Objective: To quantify the association between long working hours and alcohol use.
Design: Systematic review and meta-analysis of published studies and unpublished individual participant data.
Data Sources: A systematic search of PubMed and Embase databases in April 2014 for published studies, supplemented with manual searches.
Background And Purpose: Psychosocial stress at work has been proposed to be a risk factor for cardiovascular disease. However, its role as a risk factor for stroke is uncertain.
Methods: We conducted an individual-participant-data meta-analysis of 196 380 males and females from 14 European cohort studies to investigate the association between job strain, a measure of work-related stress, and incident stroke.
Background: Working long hours might have adverse health effects, but whether this is true for all socioeconomic status groups is unclear. In this meta-analysis stratified by socioeconomic status, we investigated the role of long working hours as a risk factor for type 2 diabetes.
Methods: We identified four published studies through a systematic literature search of PubMed and Embase up to April 30, 2014.
Objective: The status of psychosocial stress at work as a risk factor for type 2 diabetes is unclear because existing evidence is based on small studies and is subject to confounding by lifestyle factors, such as obesity and physical inactivity. This collaborative study examined whether stress at work, defined as "job strain," is associated with incident type 2 diabetes independent of lifestyle factors.
Research Design And Methods: We extracted individual-level data for 124,808 diabetes-free adults from 13 European cohort studies participating in the IPD-Work Consortium.
Background: International codes of ethics play an important role in guiding professional practice in developing countries. In the occupational health setting, codes developed by international agencies have substantial import on protecting working populations from harm. This is particularly so under globalisation which has transformed processes of production in fundamental ways across the globe.
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