School Neighborhood Disadvantage as a Predictor of Long-Term Sick Leave Among Teachers: Prospective Cohort Study

This ongoing prospective study examined characteristics of school neighborhood and neighborhood of residence as predictors of sick leave among school teachers. School neighborhood income data for 226 lower-level comprehensive schools in 10 towns in Finland were derived from Statistics Finland and were linked to register-based data on 3,063 teachers with no long-term sick leave at study entry. Outcome was medically certified (> 9 days) sick leave spells during a mean follow-up of 4.3 years from data collection in 2000-2001. A multilevel, cross-classified Poisson regression model, adjusted for age, type of teaching job, length and type of job contract, school size, baseline health status, and income level of the teacher's residential area, showed a rate ratio of 1.30 (95% confidence interval: 1.03, 1.63) for sick leave among female teachers working in schools located in low-income neighborhoods compared with those working in high-income neighborhoods. A low income level of the teacher's residential area was also independently associated with sick leave among female teachers (rate ratio = 1.50, 95% confidence interval: 1.18, 1.91). Exposure to both low-income school neighborhoods and low-income residential neighborhoods was associated with the greatest risk of sick leave (rate ratio = 1.71, 95% confidence interval: 1.27, 2.30). This study indicates that working and living in a socioeconomically disadvantaged neighborhood is associated with increased risk of sick leave among female teachers.

Engagement in cultural activities and cause-specific mortality: Prospective cohort study

Objective. To determine the relation between engagement in cultural activities and main causes of mortality among full-time employees.

Sense of coherence and diabetes: A prospective occupational cohort study

Background: Sense of coherence (SOC) is an individual characteristic related to a positive life orientation leading to effective coping. A weak SOC has been associated with indicators of general morbidity and mortality. However, the relationship between SOC and diabetes has not been studied in prospective design. The present study prospectively examined the relationship between a weak SOC and the incidence of diabetes.

Work-family characteristics as determinants of sickness absence: A large-scale cohort study of three occupational grades

This study examined the previously unexplored occupational grade-specific relationships of domestic responsibilities, the age of children, and work-family spillover, with registered sickness absence (>3 days' sick leave episodes, a mean follow-up of 17 months; n = 18,366 municipal employees; 76% women). The results showed that negative spillover from work into family life predicted a heightened rate of sickness absence spells among both women and men in all occupational categories (except upper white-collar men), but especially among blue-collar and lower white-collar employees. Furthermore, among all white-collar employees (except upper white-collar men), having young children (

Low organisational justice and heavy drinking: a prospective cohort study

Objectives: To investigate whether low perceived organisational injustice predicts heavy drinking among employees.

Effort/reward imbalance and sedentary lifestyle: an observational study in a large occupational cohort

Objectives: To investigate the association between effort/reward imbalance (ERI) at work and sedentary lifestyle.

Differential Associations of Job Control Components With Mortality: A Cohort Study, 1986-2005

Inconsistent evidence of the hypothesized favorable effects of high job control on health may have resulted from a failure to treat job control as a multifactor concept. The authors studied whether the 2 components of job control, decision authority and skill discretion, were differentially associated with cause-specific mortality in 13,510 Finnish forest company employees with no history of severe illness. Surveys on work characteristics were carried out in 1986 and 1996, and the respondents were followed up until the end of 2005 by use of the Statistics Finland National Death Registry. During a mean follow-up of 15.5 years, 981 participants died. In the analyses adjusted for confounders, employees with high and intermediate levels of skill discretion had a lower all-cause mortality risk than those with low skill discretion, with hazard ratios of 0.84 (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.69, 1.02) and 0.81 (95% CI: 0.69, 0.96), respectively. In contrast, high decision authority was associated with elevated risks of all-cause, cardiovascular, and alcohol-related mortality, with hazard ratios of 1.28 (95% CI: 1.06, 1.54), 1.49 (95% CI: 1.11, 2.02), and 2.03 (95% CI: 1.03, 4.00), respectively. The results suggest that job control is not an unequivocal concept in relation to mortality; decision authority and skill discretion show different and to some extent opposite associations.

Workplace social capital and risk of chronic and severe hypertension: a cohort study

Objective: The association between workplace factors and the development of hypertension remains uncertain. We examined the risk of hypertension as a function of workplace social capital, that is, social cohesion, trust and reciprocity in the workplace.

Workplace social capital and all-cause mortality:a prospective cohort study of 28,043 public-sector employees in Finland

We examined the association between workplace social capital and all-cause mortality in a large occupational cohort from Finland.

All-cause mortality and periodontitis in 60-70-year-old men: A prospective cohort study

Objective To investigate the association between periodontitis and mortality from all causes in a prospective study in a homogenous group of 60- to 70-year-old West European men. Methodology A representative sample of 1400 dentate men, (mean age 63.8, SD 3.0 years), drawn from the population of Northern Ireland, had a comprehensive periodontal examination between 2001 and 2003. Men were divided into thirds on the basis of their mean periodontal attachment loss (PAL). The primary endpoint, death from any cause, was analysed using Kaplan-Meier survival plots and Cox's proportional hazards model. Results In total, 152 (10.9%) of the men died during a mean follow-up of 8.9 (SD 0.7) years; 37 (7.9%) men in the third with the lowest PAL (<1.8 mm) died compared with 73 (15.7%) in the third with the highest PAL (>2.6 mm). The unadjusted hazard ratio (HR) for death in the men with the highest level of PAL compared with those with the lowest PAL was 2.11 (95% CI 1.42-3.14), p < 0.0001. After adjustment for confounding variables (age, smoking, hypertension, BMI, diabetes, cholesterol, education, marital status and previous history of a cardiovascular event) the HR was 1.57 (1.04-2.36), p = 0.03. Conclusion The European men in this prospective cohort study with the most severe loss of periodontal attachment were at an increased risk of death compared with those with the lowest loss of periodontal attachment.

Investigation of molecular markers in the diagnosis of refractory coeliac disease in a large patient cohort

Some patients with coeliac disease, despite strict adherence to a gluten-free diet, continue to have significant symptoms and/or a severe small intestinal histological lesion. The term "refractory coeliac disease" (rCD) is used to describe this condition. The purpose of this study was to investigate the value of tissue molecular markers reported to help in the diagnosis of rCD.