ArticleInternational archives of occupational and environmental health2019
Long-term exposure to heavy physical work, disability pension due to musculoskeletal disorders and all-cause mortality: 20-year follow-up-introducing Helsinki Health Study job exposure matrix.
Article in International archives of occupational and environmental health, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 38 papers.
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Who cites it
38 citing papers in PubMed, 52 citations in OpenAlex.
- Correlates of Work-Related Disability Among Injured Garment Workers in Bangladesh: A Cross-Sectional Investigation.Health science reports · 2026Article
- Change in physical workload and the risk of work disability due to musculoskeletal disorders: a register-based study of 1 703 935 workers in Sweden.Occupational and environmental medicine · 2026Article
- Construction of a musculoskeletal job-exposure matrix in Korea.Annals of occupational and environmental medicine · 2026Article
- Working conditions and state of health of employees working indoor and outdoor with varying levels of physical demand: Insights from the BIBB/BAuA employment survey 2024.BMC public health · 2026Article
- Higher job exposures are associated with reduced return-to-work two years after rehabilitation in a nationwide cohort study based on German Pension Insurance data.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Morbidity Among the Aging Population in Northern Bangladesh: An Epidemiological Study.Aging medicine (Milton (N.S.W)) · 2026Article
- On-site manual therapy for firefighters in Seoul: six-month utilization and outcome from a retrospective service analysis and web-based survey.Chiropractic & manual therapies · 2026Article
- Job exposures, employer characteristics, and risk of reduced work capacity: a 10-year cohort study of Norwegian workers.International archives of occupational and environmental health · 2026Article
- Synergy and Attenuation of Work-Related Factors in Musculoskeletal Disorders: The Combined Risk Based on Data from the Korean Working Conditions Survey.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2025Article
- Sickness absence trajectories and retirement pathways among industrial workers.European journal of public health · 2025Article
- Associations of psychosocial and physical work demands with all-cause mortality: a pooled analysis of prospective cohort studies.International journal of epidemiology · 2025Article
- Ergonomic interventions to improve musculoskeletal disorders among vehicle assembly workers: a one-year longitudinal study.BMC public health · 2025Article
- A One-Year Retrospective Observational Study of an Occupational Medicine Outpatient Clinic in a City Hospital.Annals of global health · 2025Observational
- 'Wait…, let me tell you, if I worked for a boss, I would be on sick leave': A Qualitative Study of Self-Employed Workers in Physically Demanding Jobs in the Netherlands.Journal of occupational rehabilitation · 2024Article
- Occupational physical activity, all-cause mortality and incidence of cardiovascular diseases: results from three Italian cohorts.International archives of occupational and environmental health · 2024Article
- The impact of cardiorespiratory fitness and physical workload on disability pension-a cohort study of Swedish men.International archives of occupational and environmental health · 2024Article
- A participatory ergonomics intervention to re-design work and improve the musculoskeletal health of paramedics: protocol for a cluster randomised controlled trial.BMC musculoskeletal disorders · 2023Article
- Combined exposure to heavy physical workload and low job control and the risk of disability pension: A cohort study of employed men and women in Sweden.International archives of occupational and environmental health · 2023Article
- Duration and intensity of occupational lifting and risk of long-term sickness absence: Prospective cohort study with register follow-up among 45 000 workers.Scandinavian journal of work, environment & health · 2023Article
- Physical Work Exposures of Older Workers: Does Measurement Make a Difference?Work, aging and retirement · 2023Article
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 2 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
Abstract
purposeWe developed a job exposure matrix (JEM) to study the association between long-term exposure to heavy physical effort or heavy lifting and carrying at work with disability pension due to musculoskeletal disorders and premature all-cause mortality.
methodsExposure to heavy physical effort at work during 1996-2005 was estimated with JEM developed for this study population, where the exposure was based on occupational titles of the participants. We included all employees of the City of Helsinki, Finland, who had annual data of exposure for 8-10 years (1996-2005, n = 18387). The outcome variables were register-based, and the follow-up was from 2006 until 2015. The risk estimates were evaluated using competing risk survival analysis.
resultsThere were 530 (3%) disability pension events due to musculoskeletal disorders during the 10-year follow-up. After adjustment for sex, age, education and chronic diseases, employees in the second (SHR = 1.46, 95% CI 1.05-2.05), third (SHR = 2.73, 95% CI 2.00-2.29), and the highest exposure quartile (SHR = 2.56, 95% CI 1.88-3.50) had a higher risk of musculoskeletal disability pension than employees in the lowest quartile. A total of 110 (4%) men and 266 (2%) women died during the follow-up. Men in the third quartile (SHR = 2.29, 95% CI 1.23-4.24), and women in the highest exposure quartile (SHR = 1.54, 95% CI 0.99-2.41) had a higher risk of premature mortality than those in the lowest quartile.
conclusionsEight to ten years of exposure to heavy physical effort at work is strongly associated with disability pension due to musculoskeletal disorders. This exposure also increases the risk of premature mortality, particularly among men.
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