Labor market position after a rejection of a disability pension application: a register-based cohort study.

Purpose: To study labor market positions of rejected disability pension applicants and to examine which characteristics predict ending up in these positions after the rejection.

Methods: Nationwide Finnish register data was used to describe employment, unemployment and disability pension trajectories of rejected applicants (n = 5740) from four years before to four years after the rejection. Demographic, occupational and health-related determinants of labor market position after the rejection were examined among those employed and not employed at the time of the rejection.

Socioeconomic Differences in Cause-Specific Disability Retirement in Finland, 1988 to 2009.

Objective: The major aim was to study socioeconomic inequalities in disability retirement due to different diagnostic causes over the period 1988 to 2009.

Methods: The register data are 11% sample of people aged 30 to 64 years and living in Finland in 1987 to 2007. Incidence rates were calculated for disability retirement due to different diseases during the follow-up period 1988 to 2009.

Sickness allowance trajectories preceding disability retirement: a register-based retrospective study.

Objectives: To identify subgroups of disability retirees with different pre-retirement sickness allowance histories and to examine whether the diagnosis of disability pension and socio-demographic variables discriminate these subgroups.

Methods: The data included all Finnish residents aged 30-64 years who were granted a full disability pension in 2011 (N = 17 208). Sickness allowance trajectories during the preceding 10 years were searched using latent trajectory analysis.

Explaining educational differences in sickness absence: a population-based follow-up study.

Objects: There is a marked socioeconomic gradient in sickness absences, but the causes of this gradient are poorly understood. This study examined the role of health and work-related factors as determinants of educational differences in long-term sickness absence in an 8-year follow-up.

Methods: The study comprised a population-based sample of 5835 Finns aged 30-64 years (participation 89%, N=3946) in a register-based 8-year follow-up.

Effectiveness of new legislation on partial sickness benefit on work participation: a quasi-experiment in Finland.

Objectives: To examine the effect of the new legislation on partial sickness benefit on subsequent work participation of Finns with long-term sickness absence. Additionally, we investigated whether the effect differed by sex, age or diagnostic category.

Design: A register-based quasi-experimental study compared the intervention (partial sick leave) group with the comparison (full sick leave) group regarding their pre-post differences in the outcome.

Return to Work After Temporary Disability Pension in Finland.

Purpose: When it is possible that the employee's work ability can be restored through treatment or rehabilitation, disability pension in Finland is granted for a fixed period. We examined which factors are associated with return to work (RTW) after such temporary disability pension.

Methods: The study included all Finnish residents whose temporary disability pension from the earnings-related pension system started in 2008 (N = 10,269).

Motivational orientation of people participating in vocational rehabilitation.

Purpose: The task of vocational rehabilitation is to support the employee's chances of continuing in working life. The study aimed to examine the motivational orientation of people participating in vocational rehabilitation and to find out what characteristics of the clients, their life situation, and their beliefs and perceptions were associated with it.

Methods: A mail questionnaire was answered by 839 rehabilitation clients who had received an affirmative rehabilitation decision under the earnings-related pension scheme 12 months earlier (response rate 67 %).

The contribution of major diagnostic causes to socioeconomic differences in disability retirement.

Objectives: The aim of this study was twofold: to investigate socioeconomic differences in disability retirement (DR) due to major diseases and find out which diseases contribute most to the overall socioeconomic differences in DR.

Methods: The data were longitudinal register-based (10% sample of Finns) from Statistics Finland. These data included 258 428 participants aged 35-64 years during the follow-up.

The effect of municipality characteristics on disability retirement.

Objectives: In addition to individual-level characteristics also contextual factors may contribute to the large regional variation seen in disability retirement. We examined the associations of municipality-level characteristics and disability retirement due to all causes, musculoskeletal diseases, mental disorders and other diseases.

Methods: A register-based study was conducted with a 20% random sample of the Finnish population aged 25-62 years.

Regional differences in disability retirement: explaining between-county differences in Finland.

Objectives: This study aimed to examine between-county differences in disability retirement due to main diagnosis groups and explain these differences by individual-level demographic and work-related factors and municipality-level characteristics.

Methods: A 20% random sample of the Finnish social insured population aged 25-62 years at the end of 2006 was followed for disability retirement until the end of 2011. Individual-level demographic and work-related covariates were derived from the registers of the Finnish Centre for Pensions and complemented by municipality-level covariates from the national SotkaNet databank.

Socioeconomic differences in disability retirement in Finland: the contribution of ill-health, health behaviours and working conditions.

Aims: Socioeconomic differences in disability retirement are large. In this study, the main interest was to find out the contribution of diseases, self-rated health, health behaviours and working conditions to socioeconomic differences in disability retirement.

Methods: The data are from the nationally-representative Health 2000 Survey to which register-based retirement data have been linked.

Working conditions as risk factors for disability retirement: a longitudinal register linkage study.

Background: Early retirement due to disability is a public health and work environment problem that shortens working careers. Transition to disability retirement is based on ill-health, but working conditions are also of relevance. We examined the contributions of work arrangements, physical working conditions and psychosocial working conditions to subsequent disability retirement.

Trajectories of mental health before and after old-age and disability retirement: a register-based study on purchases of psychotropic drugs.

Objectives: Retirement from paid work is a major life event facing increasingly large numbers of people in the coming years. We examined trajectories of mental health five years before and five years after old-age and disability retirement using data on purchases of psychotropic drugs.

Methods: The study included all employees from the City of Helsinki, Finland, retiring between 2000-2008 due to old age (N=4456) or disability (N=2549).

Social support as a predictor of disability pension: the Finnish Health 2000 study.

Objective: Social support at work and in private life was examined as a predictor of disability pension in the population-based Finnish Health 2000 study.

Methods: Social support was measured in a nationally representative sample comprising of 3414 employees aged 30 to 64 years. Disability pensions extracted from the registers of the Finnish Centre for Pensions were followed up across 6 years.

Sense of coherence and disability pensions. A nationwide, register based prospective population study of 2196 adult Finns.

Background: Strong sense of coherence (SOC) has been shown to be associated with good, perceived health both in cross sectional and longitudinal studies.

Study Objective: To find out if level of SOC was associated to incidence of disability pension.

Study Design: A prospective cohort study based on survey data on sense of coherence in 1989 or 1993 and data on disability pensions in 1990-1996 from national registers.