Working conditions mediate the association between social class and physical function in older age in Sweden: a prospect
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RESEARCH ARTICLE
Open Access
Working conditions mediate the association between social class and physical function in older age in Sweden: a prospective cohort study Nikita Pandey1, Alexander Darin-Mattsson1 and Charlotta Nilsen1,2*
Abstract Background: Global demographics are changing as societies all over the world are aging. This puts focus on maintaining functional ability and independence into older age. Individuals from lower social classes are at greater risk of developing limitations in physical function later in life. In this study, we investigated the mediating role of working conditions in the association between occupation-based social class and physical function measured as self-reported mobility limitations and objectively measured physical impairment in older age. Methods: Two Swedish surveys, linked at the individual level, were used (n = 676–814 depending on the outcome). Follow-up time was 20–24 years. Multiple logistic regression analyses were performed with adjustments for age, sex, level of education, mobility, and health problems at baseline. This was followed by analyses of the size of the mediating effect of working conditions. Results: Working conditions seem to mediate 35–74% of the association between social class and physical impairment in older age. The pattern of mediation was primarily driven by passive jobs, i.e., low psychological demands and low control, among blue-collar workers. Working conditions did not mediate the association between social class and self-reported mobility limitations in older age. Conclusions: The results of this study indicate that working conditions are important in combating the social gradient in healthy aging, contributing to the evidence regarding the magnitude of impact exerted by both the physical and psychosocial work environment separately and in conjunction. Keywords: Psychosocial working conditions, Physical working conditions, Older age, Physical impairment, Mobility, Physical function, Social class, Healthy aging, Longitudinal, Sweden
* Correspondence: [email protected] 1 Aging Research Center (ARC), Karolinska Institutet/Stockholm University, SE-171 65 Stockholm, Sweden 2 Stress Research Institute, Stockholm University, SE-106 91 Stockholm, Sweden © The Author(s). 2020 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a cop
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