Gunnel Ahlberg

Non-Participation in the Second Wave of the Part Study on Mental Disorder and Its Effects on Risk Estimates

Background: In epidemiological studies, analyses are needed to investigate the consequences of non-response. Aims: To analyse the consequences of attrition in the second wave of the population-based PART study, which was performed three years after the first wave. Methods: Potential determinants for non-participation obtained from population registers and the first wave were analyzed. The relationships between potential determinants and reduced well-being or depressive mood in the first wave questionnaire were investigated separately for participants and non-participants in the second wave. Samples of respondents to the second wave questionnaire with reduced or not reduced well-being were summoned for interview regarding determinants of distress and disorder. The occurrence of potential determinants was compared between participants and non-participants in both groups Results: Low income, low education, non-Nordic origin, not being married and previous psychiatric diagnosis were associated with lower participation rates. These variables were similarly related to depressive mood and low psychological well-being in the first wave among participants and non-participants in the second wave. Potential determinants were not or only weakly related to participation in the interview groups. Conclusion: Although the true prevalence of distress and disorder is underestimated, the true associations between potential determinants and the outcomes seem reasonably well reproduced.

Problematic Interpersonal Relationships at Work and Depression : A Swedish Prospective Cohort Study

Problematic Interpersonal Relationships at Work and Depression: A Swedish Prospective Cohort Study: Ulrich Stoetzer, et al. Department of Public Health Sciences, Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Sweden

Organizational factors related to low levels of sickness absence in a representative set of Swedish companies.

OBJECTIVE The aim of this qualitative study was to identify manageable organizational factors that could explain why some companies have low levels of sickness absence. There may be factors at company level that can be managed to influence levels of sickness absence, and promote health and a prosperous organization. PARTICIPANTS 38 representative Swedish companies. METHODS The study included a total of 204 semi-structured interviews at 38 representative Swedish companies. Qualitative thematic analysis was applied to the interviews, primarily with managers, to indicate the organizational factors that characterize companies with low levels of sickness absence. RESULTS The factors that were found to characterize companies with low levels of sickness absence concerned strategies and procedures for managing leadership, employee development, communication, employee participation and involvement, corporate values and visions, and employee health. CONCLUSIONS The results may be useful in finding strategies and procedures to reduce levels of sickness absence and promote health. There is research at individual level on the reasons for sickness absence. This study tries to elevate the issue to an organizational level. The findings suggest that explicit strategies for managing certain organizational factors can reduce sickness absence and help companies to develop more health-promoting strategies.

Do job demands and job control affect problem-solving?

OBJECTIVE The Job Demand Control model presents combinations of working conditions that may facilitate learning, the active learning hypothesis, or have detrimental effects on health, the strain hypothesis. To test the active learning hypothesis, this study analysed the effects of job demands and job control on general problem-solving strategies. PARTICIPANTS A population-based sample of 4,636 individuals (55% women, 45% men) with the same job characteristics measured at two times with a three year time lag was used. METHODS Main effects of demands, skill discretion, task authority and control, and the combined effects of demands and control were analysed in logistic regressions, on four outcomes representing general problem-solving strategies. RESULTS Those reporting high on skill discretion, task authority and control, as well as those reporting high demand/high control and low demand/high control job characteristics were more likely to state using problem solving strategies. CONCLUSIONS Results suggest that working conditions including high levels of control may affect how individuals cope with problems and that workplace characteristics may affect behaviour in the non-work domain.

Working conditions predicting interpersonal relationship problems at work

Interpersonal relationships have been shown to be an important component of the psychosocial work environment that may affect health, job satisfaction, and productivity. The question whether interpersonal relationships at work are influenced by other psychosocial working conditions such as demands and control has not been studied. The aim of the present study is to investigate if high work demands and aspects of low work control could predict three indicators of detrimental interpersonal relationships at work. In a representative Swedish cohort study, data were obtained in two waves three years apart from 4049 participants, who did not change their jobs between the waves. These data were analysed by multiple logistic regression analyses. Odds ratios adjusted for possible confounders and negative interpersonal relationships at base-line showed that high demands predicted serious conflict and exclusion by co-workers. Low skill discretion predicted exclusion by co-workers. It is argued that these prospective findings are of relevance to interventions targeting troublesome and detrimental interpersonal relationships at work and that the findings can be important in understanding the development of work-related mental ill-health.