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Abstract
Objectives To investigate the effect of job demand, job control and job strain on total mortality among white-collar and blue-collar employees working in the public sector.
Design 28-year prospective population-based follow-up.
Setting Several municipals in Finland.
Participants 5731 public sector employees from the Finnish Longitudinal Study on Municipal Employees Study aged 44–58 years at baseline.
Outcomes Total mortality from 1981 to 2009 among individuals with complete data on job strain in midlife, categorised according to job demand and job control: high job strain (high job demands and low job control), active job (high job demand and high job control), passive job (low job demand and low job control) and low job strain (low job demand and high job control).
Results 1836 persons died during the follow-up. Low job control among men increased (age-adjusted HR 1.26, 95% CI 1.12 to 1.42) and high job demand among women decreased the risk for total mortality HR 0.82 (95% CI 0.71 to 0.95). Adjustment for occupational group, lifestyle and health factors attenuated the association for men. In the analyses stratified by occupational group, high job strain increased the risk of mortality among white-collar men (HR 1.52, 95% CI 1.09 to 2.13) and passive job among blue-collar men (HR 1.28, 95% CI 1.05 to 1.47) compared with men with low job strain. Adjustment for lifestyle and health factors attenuated the risks. Among white-collar women having an active job decreased the risk for mortality (HR 0.78, 95% CI 0.60 to 1.00).
Conclusion The impact of job strain on mortality was different according to gender and occupational group among middle-aged public sector employees.
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Footnotes
To cite: von Bonsdorff MB, Seitsamo J, von Bonsdorff ME, et al. Job strain among blue-collar and white-collar employees as a determinant of total mortality: a 28-year population-based follow-up. BMJ Open 2012;2:e000860. doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2012-000860
Contributors JI, C-HN, JS and TR contributed substantially to conception and design of the FLAME Study. JS, MEvB and MBvB contributed to the data collection. MBvB and TR interpreted the data. MBvB analysed the data and drafted the manuscript. All the authors critically revised the article and gave final approval of the version to be published.
Funding FLAME was supported by the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health and The Local Governments Pension Institution. Mikaela von Bonsdorff was supported by Academy of Finland grant no. 132597, University Alliance Finland, University of Jyväskylä, Yrjö Jahnsson Foundation; Monika von Bonsdorff was supported by the University Alliance Finland, University of Jyväskylä; C-HN was supported by the Signe and Ane Gyllenberg Foundation.
Patient consent Obtained.
Ethics approval Ethics approval was provided by Ethical Committee of the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.
Data sharing statement No additional data are available.