Physical working conditions and subsequent sickness absence: a record linkage follow-up study among 19-39-year-old municipal employees.

PURPOSE: Physical work exposures are associated with sickness absence among older employees. We aimed to examine if they similarly contribute to all-cause sickness absence during early and mid-careers. METHODS: We used questionnaire data on physical work exposures linked to register data on sickness absence from 3542 municipal employees aged 19-39 years. Follow-up for the number of sickness absence days was 12 months. Exposures to physical workload, occupational environmental hazards, and sedentary work were divided into quartiles. In addition, duration of daily exposure to heavy work was included. Negative binomial regression models were used. RESULTS: Higher exposure to physical workload or hazardous exposures was associated with a higher number of sickness absence days. The age and gender adjusted rate ratios for sickness absence days among the participants whose exposure to physical workload was in the highest exposure quartile were 2.1 (95% CI 1.8‒2.5) compared with those whose exposure was in the lowest quartile. In addition, rate ratios for sickness absence days among participants who reported that they do heavy physical work 1.1‒2.0 h, 2.1‒4.0 h or over 4 h daily were 1.6 (1.3‒1.9), 1.5 (1.3‒1.8) and 1.7 (1.5‒2.1), respectively, compared with those who reported not doing physical work. Further adjustment for lifestyle factors or health characteristics attenuated the associations only slightly. CONCLUSION: Exposure to physically demanding work is associated with a higher number of sickness absence days among municipal employees below 40 years of age. Physical working conditions should be considered when aiming to support later work ability.

Intergenerational social mobility and body mass index trajectories - A follow-up study from Finland.

Evidence remains unclear on how intergenerational social mobility is associated with body mass index (BMI) and its long-term changes. Our study identified BMI trajectories from middle to older age by intergenerational social mobility groups and stratified the analyses by gender and two birth cohorts (birth years 1940‒1947 and 1950-1962). We used questionnaire-based cohort data that consists of four survey phases: 2000-2002, 2007, 2012, and 2017. In Phase 1, participants were 40-60-year-old employees of the City of Helsinki, Finland. Our analytical sample consisted of 6,971 women and 1,752 men. Intergenerational social mobility was constructed based on self-reported parental and own education-both divided into high and low-yielding four groups: stable high socioeconomic position (SEP) (high-high), upward social mobility (low-high), downward social mobility (high-low), and stable low SEP (low-low). BMI was calculated from self-reported height and weight from all four phases. Using mixed-effects linear regression, we found increasing BMI trajectories in all four social mobility groups until the age of 65. Women and men with stable high SEP had lower BMI trajectories compared to those with stable low SEP. In the younger birth cohort, women with upward social mobility had a lower BMI trajectory than women with stable low SEP. Additionally, women and men with downward social mobility had higher BMI trajectories than those with stable high SEP. In the older birth cohort, however, the BMI trajectories of upward and downward social mobility groups were somewhat similar and settled between the BMI trajectories of stable high and stable low SEP groups. Our results indicate that the associations between intergenerational social mobility and BMI may depend on gender and birth cohort. Nevertheless, to reduce socioeconomic inequalities in unhealthy weight gain, obesity prevention actions that focus on people who are likely to remain in low SEP might be worthwhile.

Common mental disorders and cause-specific disability retirement.

OBJECTIVES: Common mental disorders are prevalent among employees and may cause work disability. We aimed to examine the association between common mental disorders and disability retirement, with an emphasis on the severity of disorders and diagnostic causes for retirement. METHODS: Our data were derived from the Helsinki Health Study cohort on the staff of the City of Helsinki, Finland. The baseline mail surveys were made in 2000-2002 among employees reaching ages 40, 45, 50, 55 and 60 in each year (n=8960, response rate 67%, 80% women). Disability retirement events from national registers (n=628) were followed up by the end of 2010 and linked to the baseline data. After exclusions, the number of participants was 6525. Common mental disorders were measured by the General Health Questionnaire 12-item version (GHQ-12). Covariates at baseline included sociodemographic, work-related and health-related factors. Hazard ratios (HR) and 95% CIs were calculated using Cox proportional hazards models. RESULTS: Common mental disorders showed a graded association with disability retirement. For disability retirement due to any diagnostic cause, the fully adjusted HR for the GHQ-12 score 7-12 was 2.16, 95% CI 1.63 to 2.85. For disability retirement due to mental disorders the corresponding HR was 7.46, 95% CI 4.46 to 12.49. For disability retirement due to musculoskeletal diseases, the association was weaker and did not survive all adjustments. CONCLUSIONS: Common mental disorders are an important antecedent of disability retirement in general and due to mental disorders in particular. Successful measures against common mental disorders may prevent disability retirement due to mental disorders.

Genetic background of extreme violent behavior.

In developed countries, the majority of all violent crime is committed by a small group of antisocial recidivistic offenders, but no genes have been shown to contribute to recidivistic violent offending or severe violent behavior, such as homicide. Our results, from two independent cohorts of Finnish prisoners, revealed that a monoamine oxidase A (MAOA) low-activity genotype (contributing to low dopamine turnover rate) as well as the CDH13 gene (coding for neuronal membrane adhesion protein) are associated with extremely violent behavior (at least 10 committed homicides, attempted homicides or batteries). No substantial signal was observed for either MAOA or CDH13 among non-violent offenders, indicating that findings were specific for violent offending, and not largely attributable to substance abuse or antisocial personality disorder. These results indicate both low monoamine metabolism and neuronal membrane dysfunction as plausible factors in the etiology of extreme criminal violent behavior, and imply that at least about 5-10% of all severe violent crime in Finland is attributable to the aforementioned MAOA and CDH13 genotypes.

Common variant at 16p11.2 conferring risk of psychosis.

Epidemiological and genetic data support the notion that schizophrenia and bipolar disorder share genetic risk factors. In our previous genome-wide association study, meta-analysis and follow-up (totaling as many as 18 206 cases and 42 536 controls), we identified four loci showing genome-wide significant association with schizophrenia. Here we consider a mixed schizophrenia and bipolar disorder (psychosis) phenotype (addition of 7469 bipolar disorder cases, 1535 schizophrenia cases, 333 other psychosis cases, 808 unaffected family members and 46 160 controls). Combined analysis reveals a novel variant at 16p11.2 showing genome-wide significant association (rs4583255[T]; odds ratio=1.08; P=6.6 × 10(-11)). The new variant is located within a 593-kb region that substantially increases risk of psychosis when duplicated. In line with the association of the duplication with reduced body mass index (BMI), rs4583255[T] is also associated with lower BMI (P=0.0039 in the public GIANT consortium data set; P=0.00047 in 22 651 additional Icelanders).

Conflicts between work and family life and subsequent sleep problems among employees from Finland, Britain, and Japan.

PURPOSE: Research on the association between family-to-work and work-to-family conflicts and sleep problems is sparse and mostly cross-sectional. We examined these associations prospectively in three occupational cohorts. METHODS: Data were derived from the Finnish Helsinki Health Study (n = 3,881), the British Whitehall II Study (n = 3,998), and the Japanese Civil Servants Study (n = 1,834). Sleep problems were assessed using the Jenkins sleep questionnaire in the Finnish and British cohorts and the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index in the Japanese cohort. Family-to-work and work-to-family conflicts measured whether family life interfered with work or vice versa. Age, baseline sleep problems, job strain, and self-rated health were adjusted for in logistic regression analyses. RESULTS: Adjusted for age and baseline sleep, strong family-to-work conflicts were associated with subsequent sleep problems among Finnish women (OR, 1.33 (95 % CI, 1.02-1.73)) and Japanese employees of both sexes (OR, 7.61 (95 % CI, 1.01-57.2) for women; OR, 1.97 (95 % CI, 1.06-3.66) for men). Strong work-to-family conflicts were associated with subsequent sleep problems in British, Finnish, and Japanese women (OR, 2.36 (95 % CI, 1.42-3.93), 1.62 (95 % CI, 1.20-2.18), and 5.35 (95 % CI, 1.00-28.55), respectively) adjusted for age and baseline sleep problems. In men, this association was seen only in the British cohort (OR, 2.02 (95 % CI, 1.42-2.88)). Adjustments for job strain and self-rated health produced no significant attenuation of these associations. CONCLUSION: Family-to-work and work-to-family conflicts predicted subsequent sleep problems among the majority of employees in three occupational cohorts.

Copy number variations of chromosome 16p13.1 region associated with schizophrenia.

Deletions and reciprocal duplications of the chromosome 16p13.1 region have recently been reported in several cases of autism and mental retardation (MR). As genomic copy number variants found in these two disorders may also associate with schizophrenia, we examined 4345 schizophrenia patients and 35,079 controls from 8 European populations for duplications and deletions at the 16p13.1 locus, using microarray data. We found a threefold excess of duplications and deletions in schizophrenia cases compared with controls, with duplications present in 0.30% of cases versus 0.09% of controls (P=0.007) and deletions in 0.12 % of cases and 0.04% of controls (P>0.05). The region can be divided into three intervals defined by flanking low copy repeats. Duplications spanning intervals I and II showed the most significant (P = 0.00010) association with schizophrenia. The age of onset in duplication and deletion carriers among cases ranged from 12 to 35 years, and the majority were males with a family history of psychiatric disorders. In a single Icelandic family, a duplication spanning intervals I and II was present in two cases of schizophrenia, and individual cases of alcoholism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and dyslexia. Candidate genes in the region include NTAN1 and NDE1. We conclude that duplications and perhaps also deletions of chromosome 16p13.1, previously reported to be associated with autism and MR, also confer risk of schizophrenia.

Expanding the range of ZNF804A variants conferring risk of psychosis.

A trio of genome-wide association studies recently reported sequence variants at three loci to be significantly associated with schizophrenia. No sequence polymorphism had been unequivocally (P<5 × 10(-8)) associated with schizophrenia earlier. However, one variant, rs1344706[T], had come very close. This polymorphism, located in an intron of ZNF804A, was reported to associate with schizophrenia with a P-value of 1.6 × 10(-7), and with psychosis (schizophrenia plus bipolar disorder) with a P-value of 1.0 × 10(-8). In this study, using 5164 schizophrenia cases and 20,709 controls, we replicated the association with schizophrenia (odds ratio OR = 1.08, P = 0.0029) and, by adding bipolar disorder patients, we also confirmed the association with psychosis (added N = 609, OR = 1.09, P = 0.00065). Furthermore, as it has been proposed that variants such as rs1344706[T]-common and with low relative risk-may also serve to identify regions harboring less common, higher-risk susceptibility alleles, we searched ZNF804A for large copy number variants (CNVs) in 4235 psychosis patients, 1173 patients with other psychiatric disorders and 39,481 controls. We identified two CNVs including at least part of ZNF804A in psychosis patients and no ZNF804A CNVs in controls (P = 0.013 for association with psychosis). In addition, we found a ZNF804A CNV in an anxiety patient (P = 0.0016 for association with the larger set of psychiatric disorders).

Trends of phosphorus, nitrogen and chlorophyll a concentrations in Finnish rivers and lakes in 1975-2000.

During recent decades the amounts of nutrients discharged to Finnish surface waters have markedly decreased. This has been achieved by considerable investments in water protection, which were made mainly to improve municipal and industrial wastewater purification. We investigated whether these water protection measures have decreased phosphorus and nitrogen concentrations in Finnish rivers and lakes. In addition, possible trends in chlorophyll a concentrations in lakes were studied. The data consisted of a total of over 68000 monitoring results of 22 rivers and 173 lakes (or sub-basins of lakes) with different types of catchment areas. The study period covered the years 1975-2000 and the non-parametric Kendall Tau b and Seasonal Kendall tests were applied for detecting trends. Decreasing nutrient concentration trends were typical in many lakes and rivers earlier polluted by municipal and industrial wastewaters. Increasing nutrient concentration trends were common in smaller rivers and lakes receiving diffuse loading from agriculture. The results show that the investments directed towards wastewater purification have effectively improved the quality of Finnish inland waters. However, no clear effects of decreasing non-point loading were found. Thus, more effective measures should be directed towards decreasing non-point source loading.