Psychosocial working conditions, pain, mental disorders, and disability pension

Abstract

We aimed to investigate associations between psychosocial working conditions and disability pension (DP), and the role of co-existing pain or common mental disorders (CMDs). Survey data collected 1998–2003 on 25,135 Swedish twins born 1935–1958 were linked with national DP register data until 2013. Psychosocial working conditions, pain and CMDs were analyzed by Cox proportional hazards regression models (hazard ratios with 95% confidence intervals). One unit increase in job demands or control was associated with a higher risk for DP due to musculoskeletal disorders. One unit decrease in job demands predicted lower risk of DP due to mental diagnoses. Co-existing pain or CMD played no role for associations of job demands with DP, but pain influenced the associations with DP due to mental diagnoses. To conclude, psychosocial working conditions play different roles for DP depending on the diagnoses.