STREAM Newsletter 13

With the ageing of the labour force, chronic health problems have become more common among employees. For older employees, chronic diseases may reduce sustainable employability, which is defined as the ability to work happily, healthily, and productively until the statutory retirement age, which is increasing in many countries.

In the past, STREAM has been used to study the relation between individual chronic health problems on the one hand and work ability, productivity and labour market inactivity on the other. These studies found that especially musculoskeletal and psychological health problems influence sustainable employability negatively. Work factors modified the relation between chronic health problems and sustainable employability to some extent. For instance, higher autonomy reduced the risk of disability benefits among workers with chronic health problems as well as the risk of sickness absence among workers with musculoskeletal, circulatory and psychological health problems.

In this newsletter, recent research on chronic diseases using STREAM is highlighted. De Wind et al. found that, in adjusted analyses, work characteristics were not related to health
deterioration among workers with a chronic disease. Another study by De Wind and a study by Sewdas et al. found that workers with a chronic disease are less likely to work until
the retirement age or beyond the retirement age. In this newsletter we will further elaborate on factors predicting working until or beyond the retirement age among workers with a chronic disease.

We hope you enjoy this newsletter!
The STREAM-team.

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