Work strain in midlife and old age disability: A longitudinal study with 23 years of follow up.

Increasing parts of the world are facing ageing societies with growing figures of morbidity and disability. Focus of attention for European countries is directed towards prevention of old age impairment. As considerable time is spent at work, preventative psychosocial work environment measures could be entry points for a healthier ageing. The aims of this study are to i) explore the impact of mid-life work strain on old age disability ii) to examine the independent effects of the work strain components on disability, iii) to analyse the relation between education and disability and whether work strain mediates parts of this association. Work strain and baseline data will be collected from Level of Living Survey (LNU) 1981 and disability data from Swedish Panel Study of Living Conditions of the Oldest Old (SWEOLD) 2004 (n=626). Multiple logistic regression analysis showed that persons in high strain work had the lowest odds of being IADL disabled compared to the passive group. Low demand was not associated to disability, low control group had more than twice the odds of being ADL disabled. Further results indicated that work strain may mediate the association between education and disability. Finally the results support that psychosocial work environment plays a part in the health of individuals at old age