RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Physical occupational exposures and health expectancies in a French occupational cohort
JF Occupational and Environmental Medicine
JO Occup Environ Med
FD BMJ Publishing Group Ltd
SP 176
OP 183
DO 10.1136/oemed-2016-103804
VO 74
IS 3
A1 Loretta G Platts
A1 Jenny Head
A1 Sari Stenholm
A1 Holendro Singh Chungkham
A1 Marcel Goldberg
A1 Marie Zins
YR 2017
UL http://oem.bmj.com/content/74/3/176.abstract
AB Objectives To examine the relationships of strenuous and hazardous working conditions and rotating shifts that involve night working with life expectancy in good perceived health and life expectancy without chronic disease.Methods The sample contained male gas and electricity workers from the French GAZEL cohort (n=13 393). Six measures of physical working conditions were examined: Self-reports from 1989 and 1990 of ergonomic strain, physical danger, rotating shifts that involve night working and perceived physical strain; company records of workplace injuries and a job-exposure matrix of chemical exposures. Partial healthy life expectancies (age 50–75) relating to (1) self-rated health and (2) chronic health conditions, obtained from annual questionnaires (1989–2014) and company records, were estimated using multistate life tables. The analyses were adjusted for social class and occupational grade.Results Participants with physically strenuous jobs and who had experienced industrial injuries had shorter partial life expectancy. More physically demanding and dangerous work was associated with fewer years of life spent in good self-rated health and without chronic conditions, with the exception of shift work including nights, where the gradient was reversed.Conclusions Strenuous and hazardous work may contribute to lost years of good health in later life, which has implications for individuals' quality of life as well as healthcare use and labour market participation.