Work ability of the Czech workforce aged 50+ and the relationship between selected demographic and anthropometric variables

Abstract

BackgroundAn aging workforce is a global phenomenon with significant implications for European countries. Interventions facilitating the active performance of work until retirement age have consequently been developed. A new concept of work ability, which comprehensively describes the way to achieve a better correspondence between aging and work, has been created in Finland as of the end of the twentieth century. It also includes an objective measurement of work ability based on the index of work ability. The use of methods of objectification of work ability upon determination of the WAI index is still at an early stage in the Czech Republic. ObjectivesTo determine the WAI values for different demographic groups of the Czech population older than 50 years of age, the relationship between working abilities with demographic and anthropometric characteristics and diseases of an individual. MethodsThe research tool is a questionnaire to measure the Work Ability Index (WAI), translated into the Czech language. The survey involved 361 respondents from six companies and organizations, including a group of 60 unemployed persons registered at the Labor Office. The data collection took place from September 2014 to February 2015. The software Statistica Cz 12 was used for data evaluation. ResultsThe average value of WAI in the case of the sample was 39.4±7.03 and attained higher than the Dutch reference values. The statistical tests showed that men achieve higher WAI than women, WAI decreases with a higher amount of BMI and the number of diseases diagnosed by a physician. A statistically significant relationship between WAI and the type of work performed was also found. ConclusionsThis paper presents data and their assessment obtained by measuring work ability through the WAI index in the first 361 workers of six companies and organizations in the fields of banking, government, healthcare and industrial sectors. It also presents current knowledge concerning the objectification of work ability under real conditions for Czech employers through the method of determining the WAI index.