Do health and work ability mediate the effect of adverse job quality on the subjective employment perspective of older workers?
A longitudinal analysis with data from the lidA cohort study
Background and objective:
There is broad evidence that adverse working conditions have a negative impact on employment participation and the workers’ employment perspective. It is often discussed and assumed that this association is mediated by poor health, referring to the so-called ill health pathway, although this has never explicitly been investigated. The present study examined the extent to which poor health and low work ability mediate the (potential) effect of adverse job quality on the subjective employment perspective.
Methods:
In the study 3118 older employees who participated in all 3 waves (t0 = 2011, t1 = 2014, t2 = 2018) of the representative lidA cohort study were selected. To estimate mediation effects, a causal mediation analysis with inverse odds weighting was used. The analysis was conducted separately for manual and nonmanual workers.
Results:
For both manual workers (relative risk, RR = 1.06, 95 % confidence interval, CI 1.01-1.13) and nonmanual workers (RR = 1.06, 95 % CI 0.99-1.15) an adverse job quality was associated with an increased RR of reporting not being able to work until the individual retirement age. For manual workers the proportion of the total effect of the job quality mediated by low work ability was 44 percent and the proportion mediated by poor health was 17 percent. For nonmanual workers the proportion mediated by low work ability was 30 percent and the proportion mediated by poor health was 13%. A simultaneous analysis of both mediators revealed a possible overlap of the mediation effects.
Conclusion:
Enhancing the job quality and taking measures to forestall poor health and, more importantly, low work ability may constitute promising approaches to improve the subjective employment perspectives of older workers. In the political debate surrounding employment participation of older workers, the quality of work as well as work ability should find more resonance.
