scholarly journals Education differences in sickness absence and the role of health behaviors: a prospective twin study

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
K. B. Seglem ◽  
R. Ørstavik ◽  
F. A. Torvik ◽  
E. Røysamb ◽  
M. Vollrath
Keyword(s):  
Health Behaviors ◽  
Educational Attainment ◽  
Sickness Absence ◽  
Causal Effect ◽  
Familial Factors ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Cohort Differences ◽  
Genes And Environment

Abstract Background Long-term sickness absences burden the economy in many industrialized countries. Both educational attainment and health behaviors are well-known predictors of sickness absence. It remains, however, unclear whether these associations are causal or due to confounding factors. The co-twin control method allows examining causal hypotheses by controlling for familial confounding (shared genes and environment). In this study, we applied this design to study the role of education and health behaviors in sickness absence, taking sex and cohort differences into account. Methods Participants were two cohorts of in total 8806 Norwegian twins born 1948 to 1960 (older cohort, mean age at questionnaire = 40.3, 55.8% women), and 1967 to 1979 (younger cohort, mean age at questionnaire = 25.6, 58.9% women). Both cohorts had reported their health behaviors (smoking, physical activity and body mass index (BMI)) through a questionnaire during the 1990s. Data on the twins’ educational attainment and long-term sickness absences between 2000 and 2014 were retrieved from Norwegian national registries. Random (individual-level) and fixed (within-twin pair) effects regression models were used to measure the associations between educational attainment, health behaviours and sickness absence and to test the effects of possible familial confounding. Results Low education and poor health behaviors were associated with a higher proportion of sickness absence at the individual level. There were stronger effects of health behaviors on sickness absence in women, and in the older cohort, whereas the effect of educational attainment was similar across sex and cohorts. After adjustment for unobserved familial factors (genetic and environmental factors shared by twin pairs), the associations were strongly attenuated and non-significant, with the exception of health behaviors and sickness absence among men in the older cohort. Conclusions The associations between educational attainment, health behaviors, and sickness absence seem to be confounded by unobserved familial factors shared by co-twins. However, the association between health behaviors and sickness absence was consistent with a causal effect among men in the older cohort. Future studies should consider familial confounding, as well as sex and age/cohort differences, when assessing associations between education, health behaviors and sickness absence.

Creativity in Sociocultural Systems

2019 ◽  
pp. 269-284
Author(s):  
Dean Keith Simonton
Keyword(s):  
Macro Level ◽  
Historical Overview ◽  
Creative Activity ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Short And Long Term ◽  
The Cross ◽  
Sociocultural Systems

Although psychologists typically see creativity as an individual-level event, sociologists and cultural anthropologists are more likely to view it as a sociocultural phenomenon. This phenomenon takes place at the level of relatively large and enduring collectives, such as cultures, nations, and even whole civilizations. This chapter reviews the extensive research on such macro-level creativity. The review begins with a historical overview before turning to the cross-sectional research on the creative Ortgeist, a subject that encompasses the factors that influence the relative creativity of both preliterate cultures and entire modern nations. From there the chapter turns to role of the Zeitgeist in affecting the creativity of civilizations across time—the rise and fall of creative activity. This research examines both quantitative and qualitative causes that operate both short- and long-term.

scholarly journals Does workplace social capital protect against long-term sickness absence? Linking workplace aggregated social capital to sickness absence registry data

2017 ◽  
Vol 46 (3) ◽  
pp. 290-296 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne-Sophie K. Hansen ◽  
Ida E. H. Madsen ◽  
Sannie Vester Thorsen ◽  
Ole Melkevik ◽  
Jakob Bue Bjørner ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Capital ◽  
Private Sector ◽  
Sickness Absence ◽  
Collective Good ◽  
Standard Deviation Increase ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Adjusted Model ◽  
Workplace Social Capital

Aims: Most previous prospective studies have examined workplace social capital as a resource of the individual. However, literature suggests that social capital is a collective good. In the present study we examined whether a high level of workplace aggregated social capital (WASC) predicts a decreased risk of individual-level long-term sickness absence (LTSA) in Danish private sector employees. Methods: A sample of 2043 employees (aged 18–64 years, 38.5% women) from 260 Danish private-sector companies filled in a questionnaire on workplace social capital and covariates. WASC was calculated by assigning the company-averaged social capital score to all employees of each company. We derived LTSA, defined as sickness absence of more than three weeks, from a national register. We examined if WASC predicted employee LTSA using multilevel survival analyses, while excluding participants with LTSA in the three months preceding baseline. Results: We found no statistically significant association in any of the analyses. The hazard ratio for LTSA in the fully adjusted model was 0.93 (95% CI 0.77–1.13) per one standard deviation increase in WASC. When using WASC as a categorical exposure we found a statistically non-significant tendency towards a decreased risk of LTSA in employees with medium WASC (fully adjusted model: HR 0.78 (95% CI 0.48–1.27)). Post hoc analyses with workplace social capital as a resource of the individual showed similar results. Conclusions: WASC did not predict LTSA in this sample of Danish private-sector employees.

scholarly journals The Causal Effect of Education on Health: What is the Role of Health Behaviors?

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giorgio Brunello ◽  
Margherita Fort ◽  
Nicole E. Schneeweis ◽  
Rudolf Winter-Ebmer
Keyword(s):  
Health Behaviors ◽  
Causal Effect

scholarly journals The importance of financial recession for mental health among students: short- and long-term analyses from an ecosocial perspective

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Hammarström ◽  
Pekka Virtanen
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Labour Market ◽  
Somatic Symptoms ◽  
High Response Rate ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Cohort Differences ◽  
Short And Long Term

Background and aim: Referring to the ecosocial theory and utilising the ‘natural experiment’ setting provided by the global recession at the beginning of 1990s, the aim of our study was to analyse the short- and long-term associations between trade and mental health in young students followed until mid-adulthood. Method: The study was based on two prospective cohort studies, the older and the younger Northern Swedish Cohort which both consisted of all pupils in a middle-sized industrial town in Northern Sweden. At age 21, the younger cohort entered the labour market during the deep recession of the early 1990s, while the older cohort entered the labour market during the boom of the 1980s. Both cohorts were followed up with a high response rate in mid adulthood. For this study, all students were selected at age 21. Results: At age 21, those who studied during recession had more depressive and functional somatic symptoms than those who studied during boom. The cohort differences did not remain over age: by the follow-up in early middle age the differences between the cohorts were non-significant, most notably due to decreased depressive symptoms in the younger cohort and increase of functional somatic symptoms in the older cohort. Conclusions: The short-term mental health consequences of the business cycle seem to be more extensive than limited only to those who are unemployed, even though the possible long-term consequences seem to be more complex. Thus, the macrolevel had a great short-term impact on the individual level in relation to the microlevel setting of university/school. The chronosystem was also of major importance. Future research would benefit from taking the context into account.

Emotion regulation and satisfaction in long-term marital relationships: The role of emotional contagion

2018 ◽  
Vol 36 (9) ◽  
pp. 2880-2895
Author(s):  
Silvia Mazzuca ◽  
Konstantinos Kafetsios ◽  
Stefano Livi ◽  
Fabio Presaghi
Keyword(s):  
Emotion Regulation ◽  
Marital Satisfaction ◽  
Cognitive Reappraisal ◽  
Emotional Contagion ◽  
Marital Relationships ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Actor Partner Interdependence Model ◽  
Regulation Of Emotion

How couples regulate their emotions and how they converge emotionally with one another can critically affect relationship quality. We examined individual differences in two different classes of interaction-relevant processes—emotion regulation (ER) and emotional contagion (EC), the tendency to catch and converge with the emotions of others—in long-term marital relationships. Results from the actor–partner interdependence model analyses indicated that (a) actors’ and partners’ levels of cognitive reappraisal (but not suppression) and EC were independently associated with higher marital satisfaction and (b) both partners’ and actors’ levels of EC moderated associations between cognitive reappraisal (but not suppression) and marital satisfaction, such that this association significantly increased for lower levels of EC. EC at couple level had a direct effect on marital satisfaction and overrode individual-level effects of EC. These results indicate that both automatic (EC) and controlled (ER) processes have independent and conjoint effects on marital satisfaction in long-wed couples and, to an extent, coincide in attempts to synchronize couples’ emotional linkage. The results point to intrapersonal and interpersonal mechanisms in the regulation of emotion in longer term marital relationships.

The Role of Work Group in Individual Sickness Absence Behavior

2008 ◽  
Vol 49 (4) ◽  
pp. 452-467 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ari Väänänen ◽  
Nuria Tordera ◽  
Mika Kivimäki ◽  
Anne Kouvonen ◽  
Jaana Pentti ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sickness Absence ◽  
Work Group ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Municipal Employees ◽  
The Social ◽  
Liberal Attitude ◽  
Study Population ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Social Components

The purpose of our two-year follow-up study was to examine the effect of the social components of the work group, such as group absence norms and cohesion, on sickness absence behavior among individuals with varying attitudes toward work attendance. The social components were measured using a questionnaire survey, and data on sickness absence behavior were collected from the employers' records. The study population consisted of 19,306 Finnish municipal employees working in 1,847 groups (78% women). Multilevel Poisson regression modeling was applied. The direct effects of work group characteristics on sickness absence were mostly insignificant. In contrast, both of the social components of a work group had an indirect impact: The more tolerant the group absence norms (at both individual- and cross-level) and the lower the group cohesion (at the individual level), the more the absence behavior of an individual was influenced by his or her attitude toward work attendance. We conclude that work group moderates the extent to which individuals with a liberal attitude toward work attendance actually engage in sickness absence behavior.

scholarly journals The Causal Effect of Education on Health: What is the Role of Health Behaviors?

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giorgio Brunello ◽  
Margherita Fort ◽  
Nicole E. Schneeweis ◽  
Rudolf Winter-Ebmer
Keyword(s):  
Health Behaviors ◽  
Causal Effect

scholarly journals Long-Term Contextual Effects in Education: Schools and Neighborhoods

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 336-377
Author(s):  
Jean-William Laliberté
Keyword(s):  
Educational Attainment ◽  
Regression Discontinuity ◽  
Causal Effect ◽  
Spatial Regression ◽  
Contextual Effects ◽  
Regression Discontinuity Design ◽  
Growing Up ◽  
Research Designs ◽  
Long Term Impact

This paper estimates the long-term impact of growing up in better neighborhoods and attending better schools on educational attainment. First, I use a spatial regression-discontinuity design to estimate school effects. Second, I study students who move across neighborhoods in Montreal during childhood to estimate the causal effect of growing up in a better area (total exposure effects). I find large effects for both dimensions. Combining both research designs in a decomposition framework, and under key assumptions, I estimate that 50–70 percent of the benefits of moving to a better area on educational attainment are due to access to better schools. (JEL H75, I21, R23)

Long term sickness absence in women and in men: The psychological role of health

2002 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. de Rijk ◽  
B. van Lierop ◽  
N. Janssen ◽  
F. Nijhuis
Keyword(s):  
Sickness Absence

Work-unit social capital and long-term sickness absence: a prospective cohort study of 32 053 hospital employees

2018 ◽  
Vol 75 (9) ◽  
pp. 623-629 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eszter Török ◽  
Alice Jessie Clark ◽  
Johan Høy Jensen ◽  
Theis Lange ◽  
Jens Peter Bonde ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Capital ◽  
Sickness Absence ◽  
Work Unit ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Hospital Employees ◽  
Time Work ◽  
Part Time ◽  
Work Units ◽  
Part Time Work

ObjectiveThere is a lack of studies investigating social capital at the workplace level in small and relatively homogeneous work-units. The aim of the study was to investigate whether work-unit social capital predicts a lower risk of individual long-term sickness absence among Danish hospital employees followed prospectively for 1 year.MethodsThis study is based on the Well-being in HospitAL Employees cohort. The study sample consisted of 32 053 individuals nested within 2182 work-units in the Capital Region of Denmark. Work-unit social capital was measured with an eight-item scale covering elements of trust, justice and collaboration between employees and leaders. Social capital at the work-unit level was computed as the aggregated mean of individual-level social capital within each work-unit. Data on long-term sickness absence were retrieved from the employers’ payroll system and were operationalised as ≥29 consecutive days of sickness absence. We used a 12-point difference in social capital as the metric in our analyses and conducted two-level hierarchical logistic regression analysis. Adjustments were made for sex, age, seniority, occupational group and part-time work at the individual level, and work-unit size, the proportion of female employees and the proportion of part-time work at the work-unit level.ResultsThe OR for long-term sickness absence associated with a 12-point higher work-unit social capital was 0.73 (95% CI 0.68 to 0.78). Further, we found an association between higher work-unit social capital and lower long-term sickness absence across quartiles of social capital: compared with the lowest quartile, the OR for long-term sickness absence in the highest quartile was 0.51 (95% CI 0.44 to 0.60).ConclusionOur study provides support for work-unit social capital being a protective factor for individual long-term sickness absence among hospital employees in the Capital Region of Denmark.

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