scholarly journals Occupational Differences in Metabolic Syndrome Incidence Among Older Workers

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 52-52
Author(s):  
Katharina Runge ◽  
Sander K R van Zon ◽  
Ute Bültmann ◽  
Kène Henkens
Keyword(s):  
Metabolic Syndrome ◽  
Health Behaviors ◽  
Older Workers ◽  
White Collar ◽  
Occupational Group ◽  
Blue Collar ◽  
Occupational Groups ◽  
Blue Collar Workers ◽  
Physical Measurements ◽  
Occupational Differences

Abstract This study investigates whether the incidence of metabolic syndrome (MetS), and its components, differs by occupational group among older workers (45-65 years) and whether health behaviors (smoking, leisure-time physical activity, diet quality) can explain these differences. We analyzed data from older workers (N=23 051) from two comprehensive measurement waves of the Lifelines Cohort Study and Biobank. MetS components were determined by physical measurements, blood markers, medication use, and self-reports. Occupational group and health behaviors were assessed by questionnaires. The association between occupational groups and MetS incidence was examined using Cox regression analysis. Health behaviors were subsequently added to the model to examine whether they can explain differences in MetS incidence between occupational groups. Low skilled white-collar (HR: 1.25, 95% CI: 1.13, 1.39) and low skilled blue-collar (HR: 1.45, 95% CI: 1.25, 1.69) workers had a significantly higher MetS incidence risk during 3.65 years follow-up than high skilled white-collar workers. Health behaviors reduced the strength of the association between occupational group and MetS incidence most among low skilled blue-collar workers (i.e. 10.3% reduction) as unhealthy behaviors were more prevalent in this occupational group. Similar occupational differences were observed on MetS component level. To conclude, MetS incidence in older workers differs between occupational groups and health behaviors only explain a small part of these differences. Health promotion tailored to occupational groups may be beneficial specifically among older low skilled blue-collar workers. Research into other factors that contribute to occupational differences is needed, as well as studies spanning the entire working life course.

scholarly journals Identification of occupations susceptible to high exposure and risk associated with multiple toxicants in an observational study: National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 1999-2014

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vy Kim Nguyen ◽  
Justin Colacino ◽  
Chirag J Patel ◽  
Maureen Sartor ◽  
Olivier Jolliet
Keyword(s):  
White Collar ◽  
Chemical Exposure ◽  
Occupational Group ◽  
Blue Collar ◽  
Nutrition Examination Survey ◽  
Occupational Groups ◽  
Chemical Exposures ◽  
Blue Collar Workers ◽  
Health And Nutrition ◽  
Similar Chemical

Background: According to the World Health Organization, occupational exposures to hazardous chemicals are estimated to cause over 370,000 premature annual deaths. The risks due to multiple workplace chemical exposures, and those occupations most susceptible to the resulting health effects, remain poorly characterized. Objectives: The aim of this study is to identify occupations with elevated toxicant biomarker concentrations and increased health risk associated with toxicant exposures in a working US population from diverse categories of occupation. More specifically, we aim to 1) define differences in chemical exposures based on occupation description, 2) identify occupational groups with similar chemical exposure profiles, and 3) identify occupational groups with chemical biomarker levels exceeding acceptable health-based biomarker levels. Methods: For this observational study of 51,008 participants, we used data from the 1999-2014 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. We characterized differences in chemical exposures by occupational group for 129 chemicals by applying a series of generalized linear models with the outcome as biomarker concentrations and the main predictor as the occupational groups, adjusting for age, sex, race/ethnicity, poverty income ratio, study period, and biomarker of tobacco use. We identified groups of occupations with similar chemical exposure profiles via hierarchical clustering. For each occupational group, we calculated percentages of participants with chemical biomarker levels exceeding acceptable health-based guidelines. Results: Blue collar workers from "Construction", "Professional, Scientific, Technical Services", "Real Estate, Rental, Leasing", "Manufacturing", and "Wholesale Trade" have higher biomarker levels of toxic chemicals such as several heavy metals, acrylamide, glycideamide, and several volatile organic compounds compared to their white-collar counterparts. For these toxicants, 1-58% of blue-collar workers from these industries have toxicant concentrations exceeding acceptable levels. Discussion: Blue collar workers have toxicant levels higher relative to their white-collar counterparts, often exceeding acceptable levels associated with noncancer effects. Our findings identify multiple occupations to prioritize for targeted interventions and health policies to monitor and reduce high toxicant exposures.

scholarly journals Perceived Stress among Different Occupational Groups and the Interaction with Sedentary Behaviour

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (23) ◽  
pp. 4595 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dėdelė ◽  
Miškinytė ◽  
Andrušaitytė ◽  
Bartkutė
Keyword(s):  
Physical Activity ◽  
Sedentary Behaviour ◽  
Perceived Stress ◽  
White Collar ◽  
Individual Characteristics ◽  
Blue Collar ◽  
Full Time ◽  
Occupational Groups ◽  
Blue Collar Workers ◽  
The Impact

Sedentary lifestyle and low physical activity are associated with health issues, including both physical and mental health, non-communicable diseases, overweight, obesity and reduced quality of life. This study investigated differences in physical activity and other individual factors among different occupational groups, highlighting the impact of sedentary behaviour on perceived stress by occupation. Cross-sectional study included 571 full-time workers of Kaunas city, Lithuania. The outcome of this study was assessment of perceived stress. Time spent sedentary per day, occupation and other individual characteristics were self-reported using questionnaires. Two main occupational groups were analysed: white-collar and blue-collar workers. Multivariate logistic regression was used to assess the impact of sedentary behaviour on perceived stress among different occupational groups. The prevalence of high sedentary behaviour was 21.7 and 16.8 % among white-collar and blue-collar workers, respectively. Blue-collar workers had a higher risk of high perceived stress (OR 1.55, 95% CI 1.05–2.29) compared to white-collar workers; however, sedentary time did not have any impact on high perceived stress level. Meanwhile, white-collar male (OR 4.34, 95% CI 1.46–12.95) and white-collar female (OR 3.26, 95% CI 1.23–8.65) workers who spend more than three hours per day sedentary had a greater risk of high levels of perceived stress. These findings indicate sedentary behaviour effect on perceived stress among two occupational groups—white-collar and blue-collar workers—and other important factors associated with perceived stress.

scholarly journals Lifestyle-associated health risk indicators across a wide range of occupational groups: a cross-sectional analysis in 72,855 workers

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Väisänen ◽  
Lena V. Kallings ◽  
Gunnar Andersson ◽  
Peter Wallin ◽  
Erik Hemmingsson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Health Risk ◽  
White Collar ◽  
Blue Collar ◽  
Risk Indicators ◽  
Physical Work ◽  
Future Health ◽  
Occupational Groups ◽  
Blue Collar Workers ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
White Collar Workers

Abstract Background Identify and compare health risk indicators for common chronic diseases between different occupational groups. Methods A total of 72,855 participants (41% women) participating in an occupational health service screening in 2014–2019 were included. Occupation was defined by the Swedish Standard Classification of Occupation, and divided into nine major and additionally eight sub-major groups. These were analysed separately, as white- and blue-collar occupations and as low- and high-skilled occupations. Seven health risk indicators were self-reported: exercise, physical work situation, sitting at work and leisure, smoking, diet, and perceived health, whereas cardiorespiratory fitness, BMI and blood pressure were measured. These were further dichotomized (yes/no) and as clustering of risk indicators (≥3 vs. <3). Results The greatest variation in OR across sub-major and major occupational groups were seen for daily smoking (OR = 0.68 to OR = 5.12), physically demanding work (OR = 0.55 to OR = 45.74) and high sitting at work (OR = 0.04 to OR = 1.86). For clustering of health risk indicators, blue-collar workers had significantly higher clustering of health risks (OR: 1.80; 95% CI 1.71–1.90) compared to white-collar workers (reference). Compared to high-skilled white-collar workers, low-skilled white-collar workers had similar OR (2.00; 1.88–2.13) as high-skilled blue-collar workers (1.98; 1.86–2.12), with low-skilled blue-collar workers having the highest clustered risk (2.32; 2.17–2.48). Conclusion There were large differences in health risk indicators across occupational groups, mainly between high-skilled white-collar occupations and the other occupations, with important variations also between major and sub-major occupational groups. Future health interventions should target the occupational groups identified with the highest risk for effective disease prevention.

scholarly journals Lifestyle-associated health risk indicators across a wide range of occupational groups: a cross-sectional analysis in 72 855 workers

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Väisänen ◽  
Lena V Kallings ◽  
Gunnar Andersson ◽  
Peter Wallin ◽  
Erik Hemmingsson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Health Risk ◽  
White Collar ◽  
Blue Collar ◽  
Risk Indicators ◽  
Physical Work ◽  
Future Health ◽  
Occupational Groups ◽  
Blue Collar Workers ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
White Collar Workers

Abstract ObjectivesIdentify and compare health risk indicators for common chronic diseases between different occupational groups. Methods A total of 72,855 participants (41% women) participating in an occupational health servicescreening in 2014–2019 were included. Occupation was defined by the Swedish Standard Classification of Occupation, and divided into nine major and additionally eight sub-major groups. These were analysed separately, as white- and blue-collar occupations and as low- and high-skilled occupations. Seven health risk indicators were self-reported: exercise, physical work situation, sitting at work and leisure, smoking, diet, and perceived health, whereas cardiorespiratory fitness, BMI and blood pressure were measured. These were further dichotomized (yes/no) and as clustering of risk indicators (≥3 vs. <3).ResultsThe greatest variation in OR across sub-major and major occupational groups were seen for daily smoking (OR=0.68 to OR=5.12), physically demanding work (OR=0.55 to OR=45.74) and high sitting at work (OR=0.04 to OR=1.86). For clustering of health risk indicators, blue-collar workers had significantly higher clustering of health risks (OR: 1.80; 95% CI 1.71-1.90) compared to white-collar workers (reference). Compared to high-skilled white-collar workers, low-skilled white-collar workers had similar OR (2.00; 1.88-2.13) as high-skilled blue-collar workers (1.98; 1.86-2.12), with low-skilled blue-collar workers having the highest clustered risk (2.32; 2.17-2.48).ConclusionThere were large differences in health risk indicators across occupational groups, mainly between high-skilled white-collar occupations and the other occupations, with important variations also between major and sub-major occupational groups. Future health interventions should target the occupational groups identified with the highest risk for effective disease prevention.

Exploring Blue- and White-Collar Employees' Well-Being at Work System

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 14-34 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seppo Tapio Vayrynen ◽  
Heli Katariina Kiema-Junes
Keyword(s):  
Work Environment ◽  
White Collar ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Occupational Group ◽  
Occupational Groups ◽  
Work System ◽  
National Statistics ◽  
Industrial Sectors ◽  
Information And Communication ◽  
Traditional Work

The aim of this study was to examine occupational group-related differences in well-being at work (WBW) indicators ranging from real accidents, absences and retirement to experienced pleasure at work. Occupational group included two categories: blue- and white-collar employees. The study is based on analysing national statistics or ones of various industrial sectors (Study 1), or bases on findings of questionnaires in Finnish case companies (N=7) (Studies 2 and 3). WBW questionnaires answered by 3500 employees. Analysis utilised data that employees of two occupational groups, or company and national statistics revealed about WBW. Analysis was based on factors related to employee, task, tool, organisation and work environment (traditional work system (WS)), psychosocial factors, and information and communication within WS. The biggest and statistically significant differences were emphasised in results and discussion. Although two groups' roles and tasks provide reasons for many differences, the ones should be measured, thoroughly discussed and consciously managed.

scholarly journals Manning Up: Modern Manhood, Rudimentary Pugilistic Capital, and Esquire Network’s White Collar Brawlers

2019 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 70-92
Author(s):  
Adam Berg ◽  
Andrew D. Linden ◽  
Jaime Schultz
Keyword(s):  
White Collar ◽  
Blue Collar ◽  
Service Economy ◽  
Professional Lives ◽  
Workplace Conflicts ◽  
Blue Collar Workers ◽  
The Social ◽  
Professional Class ◽  
Narrative Process ◽  
Masculine Hegemony

Debuting in 2013, Esquire Network’s first season of White Collar Brawlers features professional-class men with workplace conflicts looking to “settle the score in the ring.” In the show, white-collar men are portrayed as using boxing to reclaim ostensibly primal aspects of masculinity, which their professional lives do not provide, making them appear as better men and more productive constituents of a postindustrial service economy. Through this narrative process, White Collar Brawlers romanticizes a unique fusion of postindustrial white-collar employment and the blue-collar labors of the boxing gym. This construction, which Esquire calls “modern manhood,” simultaneously empowers professional-class men while limiting the social mobility of actual blue-collar workers. Based on a critical textual analysis that adopts provisional and rudimentary aspects of Wacquant’s conception of “pugilistic capital,” we contend that Esquire Network has created a show where men are exposed to and sold an image of “modern manhood” that reifies class-based differences and reaffirms the masculine hegemony of white-collar identities.

Socioeconomic Differences in Patient Survival Are Increasing for Acute Myeloid Leukemia and Multiple Myeloma in Sweden

2009 ◽  
Vol 27 (12) ◽  
pp. 2073-2080 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sigurdur Yngvi Kristinsson ◽  
Åsa Rangert Derolf ◽  
Gustaf Edgren ◽  
Paul W. Dickman ◽  
Magnus Björkholm
Keyword(s):  
Multiple Myeloma ◽  
Acute Myeloid Leukemia ◽  
Myeloid Leukemia ◽  
White Collar ◽  
Blue Collar ◽  
Lower Mortality ◽  
Blue Collar Workers ◽  
White Collar Workers ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Acute Myeloid

Purpose An association between socioeconomic status (SES) and survival in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and multiple myeloma (MM) has not been established in developed countries. We assessed the impact of SES on survival in two large population-based cohorts of AML and MM patients diagnosed in Sweden 1973 to 2005. Patients and Methods The relative risk of death (all cause and cause specific) in relation to SES was estimated using Cox's proportional hazards regression. We also conducted analyses stratified by calendar periods (1973 to 1979, 1980 to 1989, 1990 to 1999, and 2000 to 2005). Results We identified a total of 9,165 and 14,744 patients with AML and MM, respectively. Overall, higher white-collar workers had a lower mortality than other SES groups for both AML (P = .005) and MM (P < .005). In AML patients, a consistently higher overall mortality was observed in blue-collar workers compared with higher white-collar workers in the last three periods (hazard ratio [HR], 1.26; 95% CI, 1.05 to 1.51; HR, 1.23; 95% CI, 1.05 to 1.45; HR, 1.28; 95% CI, 1.04 to 1.57, respectively). In MM, no difference was observed in the first two calendar periods. However, in 1990 to 1999, self-employed (HR, 1.18; 95% CI, 1.02 to 1.37), blue-collar workers (HR, 1.18; 95% CI, 1.04 to 1.32), and retired (HR, 1.45; 95% CI, 1.16 to 1.80) had a higher mortality compared to higher white-collar workers. In 2000 to 2005, blue-collar workers had a higher mortality (HR, 1.31; 95% CI, 1.07 to 1.60) compared with higher white-collar workers. Conclusion SES was significantly associated with survival in both AML and MM. Most conspicuously, a lower mortality was observed among the highest SES group during more recent calendar periods. Differences in management, comorbidity, and lifestyle, are likely factors to explain these findings.

Sampling errors and the substitution between white-collar and blue-collar workers

1994 ◽  
Vol 1 (10) ◽  
pp. 164-166
Author(s):  
W. H. J. Hassink ◽  
R. D. Huigen ◽  
Z. Zeelenberg
Keyword(s):  
White Collar ◽  
Blue Collar ◽  
Sampling Errors ◽  
Blue Collar Workers

What does work mean to your workers?

2017 ◽  
Vol 25 (5) ◽  
pp. 15-17
Keyword(s):  
Design Methodology ◽  
White Collar Crime ◽  
White Collar ◽  
Blue Collar ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Blue Collar Workers ◽  
White Collar Workers ◽  
Pertinent Information ◽  
Hr Managers ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies. Design/methodology/approach This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context. Findings Talk of blue-collar and white-collar workers will seem faintly outdated for many HR managers. For some, blue-collar workers will conjure up images from the 1970s and 1980s of striking mineworkers, some of the terrible conditions in steel works or in car factories in the pre-robot era. And as for white-collar workers, again this term seems a little anachronistic, albeit it has recently been adopted when referring to computerized “white-collar” crime. And as for pink-collar workers, this surely was left for dead in the 1970s along with bell-bottom flares and male perms. Practical implications The paper provides strategic insights and practical thinking that have influenced some of the world’s leading organizations. Originality/value The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.

scholarly journals Psychosocial work demands and physical workload decrease with ageing in blue-collar and white-collar workers: a prospective study based on the SLOSH cohort

BMJ Open ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (9) ◽  
pp. e030918 ◽  
Author(s):  
Torbjörn Åkerstedt ◽  
Andrea Discacciati ◽  
Henrike Häbel ◽  
Hugo Westerlund
Keyword(s):  
Working Life ◽  
White Collar ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Blue Collar ◽  
Physical Workload ◽  
Work Demands ◽  
Psychosocial Work ◽  
Occupational Groups ◽  
Gradual Improvement ◽  
Psychosocial Work Demands

ObjectivesPsychosocial work demands and physical workload are important causes of ill health. The dramatic demographic changes in society make it important to understand if such factors change with ageing, but this is presently not known. The purpose of the present study was to investigate whether psychosocial work demands and physical workload change across 8 years of ageing, whether occupational groups show different trajectories of change and if such trajectories are reflected in sleep or fatigue.MethodsA cohort of 5377 participants (mean age: 47.6±11.6 (SD) years, 43.2% males, 40.2% blue-collar workers) was measured through self-report in five biannual waves across 8 years. Mixed model regression analyses was used to investigate change across ageing.ResultsPsychosocial work demands decreased significantly across 8 years (Coeff: −0.016±0.001), with the strongest decrease in the high white-collar group (Coeff=−0.031±0.003) and the oldest group. Physical workload also decreased significantly (Coeff=−0.032±0.002), particularly in the blue-collar group (Coeff=−0.050±0.004) and in the oldest group. Fatigue decreased, and sleep problems increased with ageing, but with similar slopes in the occupational groups. All effect sizes were small, but extrapolation suggests substantial decreases across a working life career.ConclusionsThe decrease in psychosocial work demands and physical workload suggests that the burden of work becomes somewhat lighter over 8 years. The mechanism could be ‘pure’ ageing and/or increased experience or related factors. The gradual improvement in the work situation should be considered in the discussion of the place of older individuals in the labour market, and of a suitable age for retirement. The results also mean that prospective studies of work and health need to consider the improvement in working life with ageing.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document