Evaluating quick return restrictions on sickness absence in healthcare employees: A difference-in-differences study.

Background: Short intervals between shifts, known as quick returns, have been linked to adverse health effects, and increased risk of occupational accidents, particularly among healthcare employees. To safeguard employee health, the 2020 reform of Working Time Act in Finland limited rest periods under 11 h in irregular shift work.

Objective: To evaluate the changes in quick returns following the 2020 reform of the Working Time Act in Finland and their association with sickness absence among public healthcare employees.

Incentives, Health, and Retirement: Evidence From a Finnish Pension Reform.

This paper examines, using exogenous variation generated by a Finnish pension reform implemented in 2005, the interplay between health and financial incentives to postpone retirement. Based on detailed administrative data on individual health and retirement behavior, we focus on whether individual reactions to incentives vary according to health status and analyze whether individuals with ill health are also able to take advantage of the potential monetary benefits of delayed retirement created by the reform. We find that on average, individuals react to the financial incentives created by the reform as expected.

Evidence from Finland and Sweden on the relationship between early-life diseases and lifetime childlessness in men and women.

The percentage of people without children over their lifetime is approximately 25% in men and 20% in women. Individual diseases have been linked to childlessness, mostly in women, yet we lack a comprehensive picture of the effect of early-life diseases on lifetime childlessness. We examined all individuals born in 1956-1968 (men) and 1956-1973 (women) in Finland (n = 1,035,928) and Sweden (n = 1,509,092) to the completion of their reproductive lifespan in 2018.

Costs and duration of orthodontic-surgical treatment with mandibular advancement surgery.

Objectives: The aim was to analyse the costs and duration of orthodontic-surgical treatment with mandibular advancement in the public health care sector in Finland.

Materials: The study was conducted as a retrospective registry study in a public district hospital on all nonsyndromic patients that were ethnic Finns and treated with full fixed appliances and mandibular advancement surgery in 2016-2020.

Results: The mean treatment duration of the included 45 patients was 28.

Ignorance is bliss? Information and risk on crowdfunding platforms.

This research examines the determinants of project success on crowdfunding platforms within a competitive context. We focus on the specific horizontal attributes of the project-attributes that do not affect the project returns but over which investors may have heterogeneous preferences-and on the project returns' risk level. We run a laboratory experiment with several set-ups, where multiple projects compete for funding simultaneously and where potential investors operate in a quasi-continuous time.

The indirect effect of mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccination on healthcare workers' unvaccinated household members.

Mass vaccination is effective in reducing SARS-CoV-2 infections among vaccinated individuals. However, it remains unclear how effectively COVID-19 vaccines prevent people from spreading the virus to their close contacts. Using nationwide administrative datasets on SARS-CoV-2 infections, vaccination records, demographics, and unique household IDs, we conducted an observational cohort study to estimate the direct and indirect effectiveness of mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines in reducing infections among vaccinated healthcare workers and their unvaccinated household members.

Effects of rehabilitative psychotherapy on labour market success: Evaluation of a nationwide programme.

Aims: Psychotherapy is a widely used treatment for mental disorders, but whether it also improves employment and other labour market outcomes remains inconclusive. This study examined the effectiveness of a nationwide subsidized psychotherapy programme using extensive register-based data.

Methods: The sample consisted of individuals who applied for rehabilitative psychotherapy in Finland in 2009-2012 ( = 35,083).

Cost-effectiveness of whole-exome sequencing in progressive neurological disorders of children.

Objectives: To clarify the diagnostic utility and the cost-effectiveness of whole-exome sequencing (WES) as a routine early-diagnostic tool in children with progressive neurological disorders.

Methods: Patients with infantile-onset severe neurological diseases or childhood-onset progressive neurological disorders were prospectively recruited to this WES study, in the pediatric neurology clinic at Helsinki University Hospital during 2016-2018. A total of 48 patients underwent a singleton WES.

Inequality in mortality between Black and White Americans by age, place, and cause and in comparison to Europe, 1990 to 2018.

Although there is a large gap between Black and White American life expectancies, the gap fell 48.9% between 1990 and 2018, mainly due to mortality declines among Black Americans. We examine age-specific mortality trends and racial gaps in life expectancy in high- and low-income US areas and with reference to six European countries.

Effectiveness of clinical exome sequencing in adult patients with difficult-to-diagnose neurological disorders.

Objectives: Clinical diagnostics in adults with hereditary neurological diseases is complicated by clinical and genetic heterogeneity, as well as lifestyle effects. Here, we evaluate the effectiveness of exome sequencing and clinical costs in our difficult-to-diagnose adult patient cohort. Additionally, we expand the phenotypic and genetic spectrum of hereditary neurological disorders in Finland.

Regional variation in potentially inappropriate medicine use in older adults. - A national register-based cross-sectional study on economic, health system-related and patient-related characteristics.

Background: Potentially inappropriate medicines (PIM), i.e. medicines in which the potential harms may outweigh the benefits, use may be associated with e.

The effects of using participatory working time scheduling software on sickness absence: A difference-in-differences study.

Background: Participatory working time scheduling is a collaborative approach to scheduling shift work. As a potential way of improving work time control, it may provide a means to reducing sickness absence in shift work. So far, experimental and quasi-experimental studies on the effects of increased work time control on sickness absence are lacking.

Attitudes towards genetic testing and information: does parenthood shape the views?

This study examines how parents of pediatric patients might differ in their views and attitudes towards genetic technology and information when compared to adult patients. There is surprisingly little evidence on how parents compare to other parts of population in their attitudes. Previous empirical studies often relate health-related preferences and attitudes to factors such as age, education, and income instead of parental status, thus evading comparison of parents to others as health-related decision makers.

Does experience rating reduce sickness and disability claims? Evidence from policy kinks.

We study whether the experience rating of employers' disability insurance premiums affects the inflow to disability benefits in Finland. To identify the causal effect of experience rating, we exploit kinks in the rule that specifies the degree of experience rating as a function of firm size. Using comprehensive matched employer-employee panel data, we estimate the effects of experience rating on the inflow to sickness and disability benefits.

Fasting Glucose and the Risk of Depressive Symptoms: Instrumental-Variable Regression in the Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns Study.

Purpose: Type 2 diabetes (T2D) has been associated with depressive symptoms, but the causal direction of this association and the underlying mechanisms, such as increased glucose levels, remain unclear. We used instrumental-variable regression with a genetic instrument (Mendelian randomization) to examine a causal role of increased glucose concentrations in the development of depressive symptoms.

Method: Data were from the population-based Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns Study (n = 1217).

Secular rise in economically valuable personality traits.

Although trends in many physical characteristics and cognitive capabilities of modern humans are well-documented, less is known about how personality traits have evolved over time. We analyze data from a standardized personality test administered to 79% of Finnish men born between 1962 and 1976 ( = 419,523) and find steady increases in personality traits that predict higher income in later life. The magnitudes of these trends are similar to the simultaneous increase in cognitive abilities, at 0.

Public health and economic risk assessment of waterborne contaminants and pathogens in Finland.

This study shows that a variety of mathematical modeling techniques can be applied in a comprehensive assessment of the risks involved in drinking water production. In order to track the effects from water sources to the end consumers, we employed four models from different fields of study. First, two models of the physical environment, which track the movement of harmful substances from the sources to the water distribution.