TY - JOUR T1 - Job strain as a predictor of disability pension: the Finnish Public Sector Study JF - Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health JO - J Epidemiol Community Health SP - 24 LP - 30 DO - 10.1136/jech.2007.071407 VL - 63 IS - 1 AU - S Laine AU - D Gimeno AU - M Virtanen AU - T Oksanen AU - J Vahtera AU - M Elovainio AU - A Koskinen AU - J Pentti AU - M Kivimäki Y1 - 2009/01/01 UR - http://jech.bmj.com/content/63/1/24.abstract N2 - Objective: To examine whether high job strain (a combination of high job demands and low job control) is a risk factor for disability pension.Setting: Ten municipalities and 21 hospitals in Finland.Design and participants: A prospective cohort study of 20 386 female and 4 764 male Finnish public sector employees aged 19–50 using data from two surveys (baseline in 2000–2 and follow-up in 2005) and employers’ registers. In addition to self-reported job strain, we computed work unit-aggregated job strain for each participant (the average of scores of all workers of participant’s work unit except the participant him/herself).Main results: 93 employees (0.4%) retired because of disability during the follow-up. In multilevel logistic regression analysis adjusted for demographic characteristics and health risk behaviour, odds for disability pension was 2.60 (95% CI 1.26 to 5.34) times higher for employees with high self-assessed job strain than for those with low self-assessed job strain at baseline. The corresponding OR for passive job versus low job strain was 2.82 (95% CI 1.34 to 5.96). Analysis of work unit-aggregated scores replicated the association for high job strain, OR 2.25 (95% CI 1.17 to 4.35), but not that for passive job. The association between work unit job strain and disability pension remained significant after further adjustment for prevalent diseases, psychological distress and perceived health status.Conclusions: Job strain is associated with risk of subsequent disability pension. If causal, this association suggests that organisational interventions to reduce job strain may also reduce early exit from work. ER -