SynthesisScandinavian journal of work, environment & health2022
Physical activity at work may not be health enhancing. A systematic review with meta-analysis on the association between occupational physical activity and cardiovascular disease mortality covering 23 studies with 655 892 participants.
Synthesis in Scandinavian journal of work, environment & health, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 80 papers, 7 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
80 citing papers in PubMed, 7 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Domain-specific physical activity levels and risk of dementia: a systematic review and meta-analysis.The Lancet. Public health · 2026Pooled it
- Socioeconomic inequalities in exposure to neighbourhood environments for physical activity: a systematic review.The international journal of behavioral nutrition and physical activity · 2026Pooled it
- The impact of public policy on socioeconomic equity in physical activity: a systematic review.The international journal of behavioral nutrition and physical activity · 2026Pooled it
- Recreational physical activity and health-related quality of life among breast cancer survivors: a systematic review.Quality of life research : an international journal of quality of life aspects of treatment, care and rehabilitation · 2025Pooled it
- High occupational physical activity and its combined effect with leisure-time physical activity on cardiovascular disease and mortality: systematic reviews and meta-analyses.Occupational and environmental medicine · 2025Pooled it
- Exploring the 'fit for work' principle: The association between occupational physical activity, cardio-respiratory fitness, and mortality - a meta-analysis of male worker data.Scandinavian journal of work, environment & health · 2025Pooled it
- Occupational mechanical exposures as risk factor for chronic low-back pain: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Scandinavian journal of work, environment & health · 2023Pooled it
- Associations of park visits, physical activity and health outcomes among churchgoing Latino adults in low-income urban communities.Journal of behavioral medicine · 2026Trial
- Occupational Physical Activity and Hypertension: A Narrative Review.Current hypertension reports · 2026Review
- Long-term association of physical activity with survival by primary cancer treatment in endometrial cancer: The Alberta Endometrial Cancer Cohort Study.International journal of cancer · 2026Article
- Association of Domain-Specific Physical Activities with Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease in Workers: A Focus on Gender Differences.Metabolites · 2026Article
- Differential dose-response associations of leisure-time and non-leisure-time physical activity with perceived stress in middle-aged and older adults.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- The physical activity health paradox: what is it, why might it happen, and where to go from here?The international journal of behavioral nutrition and physical activity · 2026Review
- Association between physical activity and mortality in postmenopausal women: evidence from NHANES 2007-2018.BMC women's health · 2026Article
- Routine-recorded physical activity and screening-defined cardio-renal-metabolic vulnerability amongst older adults in a cold-climate agricultural county in Northeast China.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- Article
- Work conditions are associated with physical health in later life: a longitudinal cohort study in Taiwan.Innovation in aging · 2026Article
- Labour-type physical activity, metabolic dysregulation, and hypertension in rural older adults: rethinking work, exercise, and health in a cold-climate agricultural community.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- Relationship of rotating-shift work with lifestyle and health status of hospital employees.PLOS global public health · 2026Article
- Where we work correlates with whether we receive cardiorespiratory preventive care services: Health and Retirement Study 2003-2018.BMC public health · 2025Article
20 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectivesEmerging evidence suggests contrasting health effects for leisure-time and occupational physical activity. In this systematic review, we synthesized and described the epidemiological evidence regarding the association between occupational physical activity and cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality.
methodsA literature search was performed in PubMed, Embase, CINAHL, PsycINFO and Evidence-Based Medicine Reviews, from database inception to 17 April 2020. Articles were included if they described original observational prospective research, assessing the association between occupational physical activity and CVD mortality among adult workers. Reviews were included if they controlled for age and gender and at least one other relevant variable. We performed meta-analyses on the associations between occupational physical activity and CVD mortality.
resultsWe screened 3345 unique articles, and 31 articles (from 23 studies) were described in this review. In the meta-analysis, occupational physical activity showed no significant association with overall CVD mortality for both males [hazard ratio (HR) 1.00, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.87-1.15] and females (HR 0.95, 95% CI 0.82-1.09). Additional analysis showed that higher levels of occupational physical activity were non-significantly associated with a 15% increase in studies reporting on the outcome ischemic heart disease mortality (HR 1.15, 95% CI 0.88-1.49).
conclusionsWhile the beneficial association between leisure-time physical activity and CVD mortality has been widely documented, occupational physical activity was not found to have a beneficial association with CVD mortality. This observation may have implications for our appreciation of the association between physical activity and health for workers in physically demanding jobs, as occupational physical activity may not be health enhancing.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.