ArticleInternational archives of occupational and environmental health2022
Long-term sick leave for back pain, exposure to physical workload and psychosocial factors at work, and risk of disability and early-age retirement among aged Swedish workers.
Article in International archives of occupational and environmental health, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers.
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Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed, 18 citations in OpenAlex.
- Machine learning-based cross-sectional exploration of depression-chronic pain associations in chronic respiratory disease patients.BMC geriatrics · 2026Observational
- The MyRelief Digital Educational Self-Management Program for Persistent Low Back Pain: Feasibility Uncontrolled Trial.JMIR formative research · 2025Article
- Is the association between graded sickness absence and return to work confounded by health? A longitudinal cohort study from the Norwegian neck and back registry.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Mediating effect of working conditions on the association between education and early labour market exit: a cohort study of Swedish men.Occupational and environmental medicine · 2024Article
- '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
- How does lowering psychosocial risks influence sickness absence? A prospective cohort study analyzed as a quasi-experiment.European journal of public health · 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
- Musculoskeletal pain affects the age of retirement and the risk of work cessation among older people.PloS one · 2024Article
- Early retirement intentions among Abu Dhabi Police: investigating the role of psychosocial work factors and sickness absenteeism.BMC public health · 2023Article
- Low Back Pain and Upper-Extremity Musculoskeletal Disorders in French Postal Workers Driving Light-Duty Vehicles for Mail and Parcel Delivery.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Article
- Gender Differences in Associations between Biomechanical and Psychosocial Work Exposures and Age of Withdrawal from Paid Employment among Older Workers.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
purposeTo assess the risk of disability and early-age retirement associated with previous long-term sickness absence for back pain (back-pain SA), exposure to high physical workload, low job control, high demands and high strain, and to evaluate effect modification by work factors on the relationship between back-pain SA and premature retirement.
methodsAll employed Swedish residents born 1946-1955 (n = 835,956) were followed up from 2010 to 2016 for disability (DP) and early-age pension (EAP). Associations of premature retirement with exposure to work factors and back-pain SA in the 3 years before follow-up were estimated through proportional hazards models. Retirement, back-pain SA and covariates were assessed through administrative sources, and exposure to work factors through a job-exposure matrix.
resultsIn both genders, back-pain SA was associated with DP (> 1 episode: HR 3.23 among men; HR 3.12 among women) and EAP (> 1 episode: HR 1.24 among men; HR 1.18 among women). Higher physical workload and lower job control were also associated with an increased DP risk in both genders, whereas higher job demands showed a decreased risk. For EAP, associations with work factors were weak and inconsistent across genders. No effect modification by work factors was found, except for a negative effect modification by job strain on DP risk among women, i.e. a reduced effect of back-pain SA with increasing exposure.
conclusionBack-pain SA was a significant predictor of both DP and EAP, while work factors were consistently associated only with DP. Our results indicate that the joint effect of back-pain SA and work factors on DP is additive and does not support effect modification by work factors.
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