Disability Pension Award Research Articles

Survival experience of semi-skilled disability pensioners in Denmark.

The purpose of this study was to estimate the survival prognosis of semi-skilled disability pensioners. The survival experience of 1353 invalid male members of the Danish Semiskilled Workers Union (SID) awarded disability pensions in 1975 was compared with a control group of members of the same union, matched geographically and by age. The two groups were followed until Nov. 30, 1978. For the follow-up period as a whole, the mortality risk among disability pensioners was estimated to be 6.8 times as high as that of controls. The relative risk of mortality was higher at the period's inception than at the end. A very high mortality level was found among disability pensioners awarded the highest level of disability pension, but no differences in mortality were found between disability pensioners awarded the lower levels of disability pension and the corresponding control group. The significance of medical and social factors in reducing the ability to work is discussed, as it relates to grounds for the awarding of disability pensions. The prognosis of one category of disability pensioners is very poor, while the survival prognosis of another is not significantly worsened, despite a considerable deterioration in the ability to work.

A decline in earning losses associated with a community-based cardiovascular disease prevention project.

Permanent and temporary disability pension award data and survey data were used to estimate the lower bound of earning losses related to cardiovascular disease during a community-based cardiovascular disease prevention program in Eastern Finland. Earning losses due to death totaled $39.94 million but were not affected by the project. Earning losses due to permanent disability totalled +29.01 million and were $4.25 million less than expected (p less than 0.025). Earning losses due to temporary disability were $10.91 million and were not affected by the project. Total earning losses attributable to cardiovascular disease during the project period were $79.86 million, and total decline in earning losses was +4.25 million. Project implementation costs were less than one per cent of total earning losses and were equal to approximately 17 per cent of the decline in these losses attributable to the project. The findings suggest that community-based heart disease prevention programs have the potential of more than paying for themselves through an associated decline in lost earnings.

The incidence of disability pensions and mortality among semi-skilled construction workers in Copenhagen. A retrospective cohort study with two control groups.

The aim of the present study was to discover whether the incidence of disability pensions and mortality was higher amongst semi-skilled construction workers (SCW) in Copenhagen than in two control groups from the same geographic area. The population investigated consisted of a fixed cohort of 3537 SCW from Copenhagen as per 1/5/1975. The two control groups comprised 3818 Copenhagen members of the Warehouse Workers' union and a group of Copenhagen members of the Semi-skilled Worker's Union age-matched to the SCW cohort, both as per 1/5/75. Up to 31/12/79, a total of 102 SCW were granted disability pensions, compared with 89 and 77 in the two control groups respectively, i.e. a significantly higher frequency of award of disability pension among SCW than among warehouse workers (p less than 0.05). This was due especially to a higher frequency of disability pensions granted because of musculoskeletal diseases and cancer in SCW. The number of deaths was recorded from 1/5/75 to 30/11/78. No differences in overall mortality were found among the three groups, although slightly fewer deaths from lung cancer and ischaemic heart diseases and more suicides were observed among the construction workers. Selection bias and the effect of the working environment are discussed against the background of a concurrent investigation of the state of health and working conditions of SCW.