Recommendations for individual participant data meta-analyses on work stressors and health outcomes: comments on IPD-Work Consortium papers

Choi, Bong Kyoo; Schnall, Peter L.; Landsbergis, Paul; Dobson, Marnie; Ko, Sung-Kyun; Gómez, Viviola; García, Arturo Juárez; Baker, Dean

doi:10.5271/sjweh.3484

Cited by 20 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 86 publications

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“…Individuals exposed to high levels of job strain are more likely to turn into jobs requiring less strain than the opposite, and this should happen independently of the outcome with subsequent underestimation of the association of interest. 36 However, a high proportion of participants (39%) recruited were 50 years or older and likely to retire during follow-up. Because of the availability of the information on retirement from LISA database, we limited the bias censoring participants at their retirement date.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Prospective study of job stress and risk of infections in Swedish adults

et al. 2020

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ObjectivesPsychological stress may influence both susceptibility and severity of infections. Although work-related stress is a widespread concern among many employees, few studies have been conducted with the focus on work stressors and infections. We therefore aimed to investigate this association in a prospective cohort study.MethodsOur study included 25 029 employed individuals who filled-out a questionnaire in September 1997 and were followed through record linkages until retirement or December 2016. Work stress was assessed at baseline using a Swedish version of the Demand-Control Questionnaire, whereas hospital contacts related to infections were identified from the National Patient Register. We fitted extensions of the standard Cox model to account for recurrent infections.ResultsIn total, we observed 8257 infections. Individuals in the third tertile of job demand had a 13% higher hazard of infections (HR=1.13; 95% CI=1.03 to 1.24) compared with individuals in the first tertile, specifically an increased incidence of upper respiratory tract infections (HR=1.15; 95% CI=1.00 to 1.33) and urinary tract infections (HR=1.31; 95% CI=1.09 to 1.57) was found. Employees with the highest job control (third tertile) had no lower risk of infections than individuals in the lowest tertile (HR=1.02; 95% CI=0.92 to 1.13). When combining the demand and control dimensions into job strain scale, no association between high job strain and infections was observed (HR=1.08; 95% CI=0.97 to 1.21).ConclusionHigh job demand, but not low job control, is associated with an increased occurrence of infections. No difference was observed in workers with high strain jobs compared with those with low strain jobs.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Prospective study of job stress and risk of infections in Swedish adults

et al. 2020

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“…Choi et al (1) argue that findings from IPD-Work underestimate the association between job strain and health. In responding to this point, we compare our results to those from other collections of studies.…”

Section: Do Ipd-work Findings Underestimate the Associations Between mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This limits researchers' ability to confirm the causal nature of the association between job strain and CHD and evaluate the extent to which interventions to reduce job strain would reduce disease risk. Choi et al list a number of workplace intervention studies, but none of these in fact featured CHD as the endpoint of interest (1). Evidence that job strain interventions reduce sickness absence is insufficiently disease-specific to justify the inclusion of job strain as a target for CHD prevention.…”

Section: Policy Implications and The Grade Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Our findings are highly cited by the occupational health, epidemiology, and clinical medicine research community. However, some of the IPD-Work's findings have also generated disagreement as they challenge the importance of job strain as a major target for coronary heart disease (CHD) prevention, this is reflected in the critical discussion paper by Choi et al (1).…”

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confidence: 99%

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IPD-Work consortium: pre-defined meta-analyses of individual-participant data strengthen evidence base for a link between psychosocial factors and health

Kivimäki¹,

Singh‐Manoux²,

Virtanen³

et al. 2015

Scand J Work Environ Health

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Established in 2008 and comprising over 60 researchers, the IPD-Work (individual-participant data metaanalysis in working populations) consortium is a collaborative research project that uses pre-defined meta-analyses of individual-participant data from multiple cohort studies representing a range of countries. The aim of the consortium is to estimate reliably the associations of work-related psychosocial factors with chronic diseases, disability, and mortality. Our findings are highly cited by the occupational health, epidemiology, and clinical medicine research community. However, some of the IPD-Work's findings have also generated disagreement as they challenge the importance of job strain as a major target for coronary heart disease (CHD) prevention, this is reflected in the critical discussion paper by Choi et al (1).In this invited reply to Choi et al, we aim to (i) describe how IPD-Work seeks to advance research on associations between work-related psychosocial risk factors and health; (ii) demonstrate as unfounded Choi et al's assertion that IPD-Work has underestimated associations between job strain and health endpoints; these include the dichotomous measurement of job strain, potential underestimation of the population attributable risk (PAR) of job strain for CHD, and policy implications arising from the findings of the IPD-Work consortium; and (iii) outline general principles for designing evidence-based policy and prevention from good-quality evidence, including future directions for research on psychosocial factors at work and health. In addition, we highlight some problems with Choi et al's approach. What is the IPD-Work consortium?The IPD-Work consortium was established at a meeting of principal investigators and researchers working on European occupational cohort studies in London in 2008. In 2010, we obtained funding from the European Union (new OSH-ERA research program) to cover core activities, harmonization of the data across studies, and statistical analysis. Originally, 17 independent cohort studies from Finland, Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Germany, and the UK were included (2). This number currently stands at 26 studies, including those from the United States and Australia.Our motivation for establishing the consortium was to advance research on work-related psychosocial factors and health. The most widely studied of these, "job strain", dates back to 1979 (3). The original hypothesis posits that a combination of high psychological demands at work and low job control (ie, job strain) increases the risk of health problems of public health importance, such as CHD (4). Although the concept was well received by both stress researchers and occupational health specialists, for decades, unresolved debates have hampered interpretation of results and research progress. These include the magnitude of the association, the relative importance of high psychological demands versus low job control (whether one is more toxic than the other), and differences in effect by age and sex...

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“…We have read with interest the ongoing debates concerning the work of the IPD-Work Consortium focusing on the relationship between working conditions and health outcomes, which recently included a commentary from Choi and colleagues and an invited reply from Kivimäki and members of the IPD group in this journal (1,2).…”

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confidence: 99%

What is needed to make research on the psychosocial work environment and health more meaningful? Reflections and missed opportunities in IPD debates

Smith¹,

LaMontagne²

2015

Scand J Work Environ Health

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What is needed to make research on the psychosocial work environment and health more meaningful? Reflections and missed opportunities in IPD debates by Smith PM, LaMontagne AD We identify issues that have been overlooked in the debates about the work of the IPD-Work Consortium. These include the need for objective cut-points for psychosocial work stress exposures and better conceptual models of how psychosocial work exposures, health behaviors, obesity, and enduring health conditions are related.

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Recommendations for individual participant data meta-analyses on work stressors and health outcomes: comments on IPD-Work Consortium papers

Cited by 20 publications

References 86 publications

Prospective study of job stress and risk of infections in Swedish adults

Prospective study of job stress and risk of infections in Swedish adults

IPD-Work consortium: pre-defined meta-analyses of individual-participant data strengthen evidence base for a link between psychosocial factors and health

What is needed to make research on the psychosocial work environment and health more meaningful? Reflections and missed opportunities in IPD debates

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