Objective: To investigate incidences of disability retirement among men who had been employed at the construction of a large traffic link in Denmark, which involved long working hours and long distances between home and work place.
Methods: Men aged 20-54 years at baseline who had been engaged in the construction of the Great Belt Link (n = 5882) were followed-up for disability retirements from 1996 to 2000. Age-standardized incidence ratios (SIR) were calculated and compared with those of other construction workers (n = 117,157). All economically active men in Denmark were used as the standard population.
Results: The SIRs for the two groups were 2.29 (95% confidence intervals (CI): 1.95-2.67) and 0.98 (95% CI: 0.93-1.03), respectively.
Conclusions: The Great Belt construction workers had an elevated risk for disability retirement compared with other construction workers and with economically active men in general.