Perimenopause: Symptoms, work ability and health among 4010 Dutch workers.

Objective: In this study we examined the associations between menopausal symptoms and work ability and health among a general population of Dutch female workers.

Study Design: This nationwide cross-sectional study was a follow-up of the Netherlands Working Conditions Survey 2020. In 2021, 4010 Dutch female employees aged 40-67 years completed an online survey on a variety of topics, including menopausal symptoms, work ability and health.

Working from home: mismatch between access and need in relation to work-home interference and fatigue.

Objectives: Working from home (WfH) is a promising practice that may enable employees to successfully and sustainably combine work and private life. Yet, not every employer facilitates WfH and not every employee has similar needs concerning the practice. The current study aims to examine the association of a WfH mismatch with work-home interference (WHI) and fatigue.

Sedentary work and participation in leisure-time physical activity.

Objective: Demanding psychosocial work characteristics, such as high job demands, can have a detrimental impact on leisure-time physical activity (LTPA), with adverse consequences for employee health and well-being. However, the mechanisms and moderators of this crossover effect are still largely unknown. We therefore aimed to identify and test potential mediating and moderating factors from within and outside the work environment.

Physical working conditions as covered in European monitoring questionnaires.

Background: The prevalence of workers with demanding physical working conditions in the European work force remains high, and occupational physical exposures are considered important risk factors for musculoskeletal disorders (MSD), a major burden for both workers and society. Exposures to physical workloads are therefore part of the European nationwide surveys to monitor working conditions and health. An interesting question is to what extent the same domains, dimensions and items referring to the physical workloads are covered in the surveys.

Long working hours and cancer risk: a multi-cohort study.

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.

The Relationship of On-Call Work with Fatigue, Work-Home Interference, and Perceived Performance Difficulties.

Objectives: This study examined the relationship between on-call duty exposure (active and total on-call hours a month, number of calls per duty) and employees' experiences of being on-call (stress due to unpredictability, ability to relax during inactive on-call periods, restrictions during on-call duties, on-call work demands, and satisfaction with compensation for on-call duties) on the one hand and fatigue, strain-based and time-based work-home interference (WHI), and perceived on-call performance difficulties (PPD) on the other hand.

Methods: Cross-sectional survey data were collected among a large heterogeneous sample of Dutch employees (N = 5437). The final sample consisted of 157 on-call workers (23-69 years, 71% males).

Long working hours and risk of coronary heart disease and stroke: a systematic review and meta-analysis of published and unpublished data for 603,838 individuals.

Background: 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.

Job strain and the risk of stroke: an individual-participant data meta-analysis.

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.

Dimensional comparability of psychosocial working conditions as covered in European monitoring questionnaires.

Background: In most countries in the EU, national surveys are used to monitor working conditions and health. Since the development processes behind the various surveys are not necessarily theoretical, but certainly practical and political, the extent of similarity among the dimensions covered in these surveys has been unclear. Another interesting question is whether prominent models from scientific research on work and health are present in the surveys--bearing in mind that the primary focus of these surveys is on monitoring status and trends, not on mapping scientific models.

Work stress and risk of cancer: meta-analysis of 5700 incident cancer events in 116,000 European men and women.

Objective: To investigate whether work related stress, measured and defined as job strain, is associated with the overall risk of cancer and the risk of colorectal, lung, breast, or prostate cancers.

Design: Meta-analysis of pooled prospective individual participant data from 12 European cohort studies including 116,056 men and women aged 17-70 who were free from cancer at study baseline and were followed-up for a median of 12 years. Work stress was measured and defined as job strain, which was self reported at baseline.

Job strain as a risk factor for leisure-time physical inactivity: an individual-participant meta-analysis of up to 170,000 men and women: the IPD-Work Consortium.

Unfavorable work characteristics, such as low job control and too high or too low job demands, have been suggested to increase the likelihood of physical inactivity during leisure time, but this has not been verified in large-scale studies. The authors combined individual-level data from 14 European cohort studies (baseline years from 1985-1988 to 2006-2008) to examine the association between unfavorable work characteristics and leisure-time physical inactivity in a total of 170,162 employees (50% women; mean age, 43.5 years).

Job strain as a risk factor for coronary heart disease: a collaborative meta-analysis of individual participant data.

Background: Published work assessing psychosocial stress (job strain) as a risk factor for coronary heart disease is inconsistent and subject to publication bias and reverse causation bias. We analysed the relation between job strain and coronary heart disease with a meta-analysis of published and unpublished studies.

Methods: We used individual records from 13 European cohort studies (1985-2006) of men and women without coronary heart disease who were employed at time of baseline assessment.

Job strain and alcohol intake: a collaborative meta-analysis of individual-participant data from 140,000 men and women.

Background: The relationship between work-related stress and alcohol intake is uncertain. In order to add to the thus far inconsistent evidence from relatively small studies, we conducted individual-participant meta-analyses of the association between work-related stress (operationalised as self-reported job strain) and alcohol intake.

Methodology And Principal Findings: We analysed cross-sectional data from 12 European studies (n = 142 140) and longitudinal data from four studies (n = 48 646).

Job strain and tobacco smoking: an individual-participant data meta-analysis of 166,130 adults in 15 European studies.

Background: Tobacco smoking is a major contributor to the public health burden and healthcare costs worldwide, but the determinants of smoking behaviours are poorly understood. We conducted a large individual-participant meta-analysis to examine the extent to which work-related stress, operationalised as job strain, is associated with tobacco smoking in working adults.

Methodology And Principal Findings: We analysed cross-sectional data from 15 European studies comprising 166,130 participants.

Can workers with chronic back pain shift from pain elimination to function restore at work? Qualitative evaluation of an innovative work related multidisciplinary programme.

Introduction: Workers with chronic low back pain (LBP) mean a heavy human and social-economic burden. Their medical histories often include different treatments without attention to work-relatedness or communication with occupational health providers, leaving them passive and medicalized in (outpatient) health care. So we developed and implemented an innovative, patient-activating alternative: the multidisciplinary outpatient care (MOC) programme, including work(place) intervention and graded activity.

Productivity loss at work; health-related and work-related factors.

Introduction: Productivity loss is an increasing problem in an aging working population that is decreasing in numbers. The aim of this study is to identify work-related and health-related characteristics associated with productivity loss, due to either sickness absence or reduced performance at work.

Methods: In this cross-sectional study, data of the Netherlands Working Conditions Survey of 2007 were used, which includes a national representative sample of 22,759 employees aged 15 to 64 years.

Work-related fatigue: the specific case of highly educated women in the Netherlands.

Purpose: This study aims to establish the prevalence of high work-related fatigue (need for recovery, NFR) among employees and to explain group differences categorized by gender, age, and education. The study particularly aims to clarify prevalence and explanatory factors in highly educated women.

Methods: In 2005 and 2006, large representative samples of 80,000 Dutch employees (net response rate 33.

Equal task, equal exposure? Are men and women with the same tasks equally exposed to awkward working postures?

The aim of the study was to determine whether men and woman with equal tasks perform these tasks in the same way. Video recordings of 37 male and 43 female workers in six task groups were observed, from which data regarding frequency and duration of exposure to awkward postures were derived. These data were also compared to self-reported exposures.

Is there a gender difference in the effect of work-related physical and psychosocial risk factors on musculoskeletal symptoms and related sickness absence?

Objectives: The objective of this study was to determine whether there are gender differences in the effect of exposure to work-related physical and psychosocial risk factors on low back, neck, shoulder, or hand-arm symptoms and related sickness absence.

Methods: Data of a prospective cohort (study on musculoskeletal disorders, absenteeism stress and health) with a follow-up period of three years were used. Questionnaires were used to assess exposure to risk factors and musculoskeletal symptoms.

What makes men and women with musculoskeletal complaints decide they are too sick to work?

Objective: The objective of this study was to determine what makes men and women with musculoskeletal complaints decide to call in sick for work.

Methods: Qualitative, face-to-face interviews were used with employees (16 men and 14 women) who had called in sick due to a musculoskeletal complaint and who expected to be absent from work for at least 2 weeks on sick leave.

Results: The participants fell into the following two main groups: those who were off sick because of a diagnosed medical condition, such as a fracture, and those who were off sick because of an unidentifiable complaint, such as low-back pain.

Gender differences in self-reported physical and psychosocial exposures in jobs with both female and male workers.

Objective: The aim was to determine whether men and women with the same job are equally exposed to work-related physical and psychosocial risk factors for musculoskeletal complaints.

Methods: Men (n = 491) and women (n = 342) in 8 jobs with both female and male workers completed a questionnaire on exposure to work-related risk factors. Gender, job title, and potential confounders were included in the final statistical models.

Gender differences in the relations between work-related physical and psychosocial risk factors and musculoskeletal complaints.

Gender differences in the prevalence of musculoskeletal complaints might be explained by differences in the effect of exposure to work-related physical and psychosocial risk factors. A systematic review was conducted to examine gender differences in the relations between these risk factors and musculoskeletal complaints. Several electronic databases were searched.

An update of a systematic review of controlled clinical trials on the primary prevention of back pain at the workplace.

Objective: To update the evidence on the effectiveness of lumbar supports, education and exercise in the primary prevention of low back pain at the workplace.

Methods: A computerized search for controlled clinical trials published between 1997 and 2002 was conducted, and the methodological quality of the studies was assessed using a criteria list. The available evidence was graded with a rating system for the level of evidence.