Working to the older age: assessing psychosocial resources in the working environment as decelerators of cardiometabolic disease development

FORTE-funded research project

The overall aim of this project is to examine the role of workplace psychosocial resources in the prevention of cardiometabolic diseases (CMD), with a particular focus on employees exhibiting pre-disease conditions.

The project consists of the following work packages (WPs):

WP1: Mapping psychosocial resources in the workplace

WP2: Workplace psychosocial resources as protective factors decelerating the transition from pre-disease conditions to clinical disease

WP3: Simulation of joint interventions targeting workplace resources and lifestyle factors among employees with and without pre-disease conditions

Data and Methods

The project will utilize multicohort data from five major European occupational health cohorts, comprising over 120,000 participants with repeated measurements.

Pre-disease conditions include prediabetes, obesity, and gestational diabetes for type 2 diabetes (T2D); and obesity, hypertension, T2D, and a high cardiovascular risk profile (ASCVD risk score) for cardiovascular disease (CVD).

The project will refine existing analyses of psychosocial resource clusters in the workplace and identify organizational characteristics associated with limited or absent resources. Disease-free life-years will be estimated to assess the extent to which workplace resources can slow the transition from pre-disease to clinical disease, acknowledging that pre-disease conditions may be reversible.

Furthermore, using observational data, the project will simulate hypothetical interventions under a counterfactual framework, estimating risk ratios and risk differences for various intervention scenarios among employees with and without pre-disease conditions.

Societal Relevance and Impact

As retirement ages rise, older workers increasingly face challenges related to managing pre-disease conditions of CMD, living with CMD, or premature exit from the workforce, all of which place significant burdens on individuals and public systems.

This project investigates how modifiable workplace psychosocial resources may influence the development of CMD among individuals with pre-disease conditions, thereby contributing to the understanding of these resources as potential protective factors for sustainable working lives.

The estimation of disease-free life-years, risk ratios, and risk differences will provide actionable insights to guide the development of preventive interventions and improve risk communication in both occupational health and public health contexts.