Article Text
Abstract
Objectives To determine the associations of lifestyle factors and cumulative physical workload exposures with sickness absence (SA) due to a shoulder lesion and to calculate their population attributable fractions (PAF).
Methods Our nationally representative cohort consisted of 4344 individuals aged 30–62 years who participated in the Finnish Health 2000 Survey. Education, smoking, chronic diseases and work exposures were assessed during interviews and leisure time physical activity with a questionnaire. Weight and height were measured. We followed the individuals for 15 years for the first SA due to a shoulder lesion. We used competing risk regression models. We calculated PAFs to assess the proportion of SA that was attributed to modifiable risk factors.
Results In the entire study population, risk factors of SA were age, daily smoking, being exposed for more than 10 years to physically heavy work and being exposed for more than 10 years to at least two specific physical workload factors. The overall PAF for the modifiable risk factors was 49%. In men, number of specific cumulative exposures, obesity and daily smoking predicted SA with PAF values of 34%, 30% and 14%, respectively. Among women, being exposed for more than 10 years to physically heavy work, number of specific cumulative exposures and daily smoking accounted for 23%, 22% and 15% of SA, respectively.
Conclusions Reducing significantly prolonged exposure to physical workload factors, avoiding regular smoking in both genders and obesity in men has a high potential to prevent SA due to a shoulder lesion.
- epidemiology
- musculoskeletal
- OH services
- sickness absence
- workload
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Footnotes
Contributors All authors planned the study. SS made the analyses. MS drafted the manuscript. All authors critically reviewed and approved the manuscript.
Funding This study was funded by NordForsk (grant number 76659), the Finnish Work Environment Fund (grant number 115105), the Academy of Finland (grant number 303534), the Nordic Council of Ministers (grant number 101250) and by a university-level health research (Helsinki University Hospital/Internal Medicine and Rehabilitation) project (Y101500007) (grant number HUS/174/2019).
Competing interests None declared.
Patient consent for publication Not required.
Ethics approval The Section for Epidemiology and Public Health of the Ethics Committee of the Hospital District of Helsinki and Uusimaa approved the study design of the Health 2000 Study 31 May 2000. Participation in the study was voluntary, and the subjects were asked to sign an informed consent form. The consent contained a permission for using their data in studies on health, various diseases and their determinants, including linkage to the registers.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.
Data availability statement Data may be obtained from a third party and are not publicly available. National Institute of Health and Welfare holds the data on the Health 2000 cohort. These data can be obtained by a research proposal. The data on sickness absences can be obtained from The Social Insurance Institution of Finland by applying for access to information for research purposes.