The Swedish Longitudinal Occupational Survey of Health (SLOSH)

SLOSH is an internationally leading panel study that highlights how different factors in people's working life, private life and state of health affect each other over time. Through better knowledge of how the risks of disease and decreased well-being can be reduced both in and outside working life, SLOSH can contribute to better conditions for good public health.

The survey is based on a long tradition of Swedish work environment research. SLOSH is currently the world's largest nationally representative prospective work environment cohort.

The database enables studies on longitudinal relationships between, for instance:

work organisation
working environment, especially psychosocial
health behaviours
social conditions
retirement
extended working life
health and well-being.

Study aim

The formal aim is to provide prospective, nationally representative data for investigations of longitudinal relationships between work organisation, work environment (in particular psychosocial), labour market participation, health, and well-being, taking social conditions, individual differences, health behaviours, coping, work-private life interaction, sleep, and ageing and business cycle variations into account.

Surveys since 2006

SLOSH contains survey data on employment, working environment, retirement, health behaviours, social conditions and health. The survey data is complemented by certain administrative register data. The survey has been ongoing since 2006, with follow-ups every two years. Annual follow-ups are carried out since 2022.

The study is based on the participants in the Work Environment survey. In total, SLOSH now consists of roughly 57,000 initially working people who are followed across their life-course. Today we have data for people up to over 80 years of age. From 2024, younger participants will be added through the Y-SLOSH project, regardless of whether they are working or not.