Research project Working to the older age
As people work to older ages, maintaining good health and work ability is essential for a sustainable workforce. Cardiometabolic diseases (CMD), including type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease, remain major causes of disability and early retirement.
This project examines how positive psychosocial resources at work – such as organizational justice, leadership quality, social support, and collaboration – may help prevent CMD, particularly among employees with pre-disease conditions like prediabetes, obesity, or hypertension.
Using data from five large European occupational health cohorts with over 120,000 participants, the project identifies patterns of workplace resources, estimates disease-free life-years, and simulates hypothetical interventions combining improvements in the work environment and lifestyle factors. The findings will generate actionable knowledge on how workplace resources can slow or reverse disease progression, supporting healthier and more sustainable working lives.
Full project title: Working to the older age: Assessing psychosocial resources in the working environment as decelerators of cardiometabolic disease development.
Project description
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.
Project members
Project managers
Tianwei Xu
Researcher
Members
Morten Birkeland Nielsen
Leading senior researcher
Holendro Singh Chungkham
Associate Professor
Lars Göran Kecklund
Professor
Mika Kivimäki
Professor
Petra Lindfors
Professor
Linda Magnusson Hanson
Associate Professor
Helena Nordenstedt
Associate Professor
Maria Nordin
Associate Professor
Reiner Rugulies
Professor
Hugo Westerlund
Professor
