Ari Väänänen

Finnish Institute of Occupational Health | FIOH · Population and Work Ability

Using nationally representative register data, we examined the employment paths of educated women with foreign and Finnish backgrounds who were unemployed at baseline in 2013 (N= 30,407) until 2019. Employment paths were analysed on the basis of changes in main activity, using sequence and cluster analyses. The links between country of origin and t...

Alle 35-vuotiaiden työssä käyvien aikuisten mielenterveyden haasteet ovat kasvaneet voimakkaasti Suomessa ja muissa länsimaissa. Tutkimus on painottunut työelämän riskitekijälähtöiseen tarkasteluun, ja ratkaisujen etsinnässä on korostunut sekä lääketieteellinen että yksilölähtöinen viitekehys. Tässä artikkelissa tarkastellaan nuorten työntekijöiden...

Introduction Mental disorders are a major cause of work disability among working age population. Psychotherapy has been shown to be an effective treatment for mental disorders, but the evidence mainly comes from small scale randomised trials with a relatively short follow-up. Objectives We used population-based register data to examine the associa...

Introduction The concept of health capital views health as a form of capital that produces healthy time to individual. This stock of capital - health that is - can decrease or increase. The potential of psychotherapy as individual's investment to (mental) health capital has been rarely studied in population level. Objectives The aim of our study i...

Objectives Previous studies indicate socioeconomic inequalities in psychotherapy utilization. The aim of this study was to assess the associations of individual annual incomes with the utilization of long-term rehabilitative psychotherapy during nine-year follow-up in men and women. As secondary analyses we assessed the association of main activity...

Introduction Studies on mental health inequalities are usually based on limited sets of mental health indicators. Objectives Using a large number of mental health indicators, we explored whether it is possible to identify similar hierarchical rankings regardless of mental health indicators (incl. psychotherapy) among employees representing differe...

Introduction Previous studies have shown the effects of occupational class and gender on mental distress and use of psychotherapy. However, less is known about the mental distress-based use of psychotherapy in different occupational classes. Objectives The aim of our study is to show how the prevalence of mental distress and the use of long-term p...

Objective: The effects of lifestyle interventions on the prevention of a decline in work ability and mental health are not well known. The aim of this randomized controlled trial was to examine the effects of healthy lifestyle changes on work ability, sleep, and mental health. Methods: Workers aged 18-65 years, who were free from cardiovascular...

Background Mental disorders are a major cause of work disability among the working-age population. Psychotherapy has shown to be an effective treatment for mental disorders, but the evidence is mainly based on small-scale randomised trials with relatively short follow-ups. We used population-based register data to examine the association between st...

Background Heavy alcohol consumption increases the risk of several chronic diseases. In this multicohort study, we estimated the number of life-years without major chronic diseases according to different characteristics of alcohol use. Methods In primary analysis, we pooled individual-level data from up to 129,942 adults across 12 cohort studies w...

The effect of flexible work on mental health is not well known. The aim of this systematic review was to assess the effects of employee-oriented flexible work on mental health problems and associated disability. Literature searches were conducted in the PubMed, Scopus, Web of Sciences, Cochrane Library, PsycINFO, ProQuest and EconPapers databases f...

Background Guidelines for pain management and sick leave prescription were formulated and implemented in an occupational health services (OHS) in Finland to reduce work disability and sick leaves related to musculoskeletal pain. We investigated how the guidelines implementation intervention may have produced its effects, how the number of prescribe...

Objective An intervention was carried out at the occupational healthcare services (OHS) of the City of Helsinki beginning in 2016. We investigated the association between the intervention and employee sick leaves using interrupted time series analysis. Design Register-based cohort study with a quasi-experimental study design. Setting Employees of...

Objectives To examine the association between cognitively stimulating work and subsequent risk of dementia and to identify protein pathways for this association. Design Multicohort study with three sets of analyses. Setting United Kingdom, Europe, and the United States. Participants Three associations were examined: cognitive stimulation and dem...

Background Infections have been hypothesised to increase the risk of dementia. Existing studies have included a narrow range of infectious diseases, relied on short follow-up periods, and provided little evidence for whether the increased risk is limited to specific dementia subtypes or attributable to specific microbes rather than infection burden...

In Western countries, entry into the labour market is difficult for humanitarian migrants, especially women. The aim of our study was to examine the association of health, native Finnish friends and having under school-age children with employment among humanitarian migrants. The data were drawn from the Finnish Migrant Health and Wellbeing Study....

Drawing from the sociological and organizational scholarship of emotion management in human service work, our historical analysis elaborates on how external pressures and efficiency requirements jeopardize employees’ ability to carry out emotional labour in the public sector. Building on the Finnish social workers’ accounts published in a professio...

Background Migrant populations are particularly at risk of not receiving the care for mental ill-health that they require for a range of reasons, including language and other barriers to health service access. This record linkage study compares, for migrant and settled communities, the likelihood that a person in Northern Ireland with poor mental h...

This article examines the emergence and evolution of the discourse on mental health problems as an occupational health risk in the professional debates among Finnish insurance workers from a historical perspective. Our findings indicate that the mental health discourse was influenced by organizational, cultural and political changes. We also found...

Importance: Evidence on alcohol consumption as a risk factor for dementia usually relates to overall consumption. The role of alcohol-induced loss of consciousness is uncertain. Objective: To examine the risk of future dementia associated with overall alcohol consumption and alcohol-induced loss of consciousness in a population of current drinke...

Conceptual models based on the importance of work autonomy for employees’ health represent important cornerstones in the occupational well-being and work stress literature. The objectives of this study were to 1) explore and understand the temporal conditions framing work among autonomous knowledge professionals, 2) describe how autonomy is experie...

Background Job strain is implicated in many atherosclerotic diseases, but its role in peripheral artery disease ( PAD ) is unclear. We investigated the association of job strain with hospital records of PAD , using individual‐level data from 11 prospective cohort studies from Finland, Sweden, Denmark, and the United Kingdom. Methods and Results Jo...

Background: Infectious diseases have been hypothesised to increase the risk of dementia. However, the evidence is sparse, captures only a limited range of infectious diseases, and relies on short follow-up periods. We assessed a wide range of severe (hospital-treated) bacterial and viral infections and their subtypes as risk factors for dementia in...

Background Disparities in mortality have been firmly established across occupational grades and the incomes they earn, but this line of research has failed to include individuals’ relationships to capital, as suggested by class analysists. Methods According to Wright’s classification, the research generated 10 mutually exclusive classes based on o...

Purpose: There is a recent and growing migrant population in Northern Ireland. However, rigorous research is absent regarding access to mental health care by different migrant groups. In order to address this knowledge gap, this study aimed to identify the relative use of psychotropic medication between the largest first generation migrant groups...

Since the 1970s, the various manifestations of mental health problems among Western employees have multiplied. This paper explores how occupational health physicians’ perceive the changes that have enabled the emergence of mental health concerns in the Finnish welfare regime. The interpretations of health professionals with long working careers (41...

Background: A higher risk of common mental health disorders has been found for first-generation migrants in high income countries, but few studies have examined the use of mental health care. This study aimed to identify the level of antidepressant use amongst the largest first generation migrant groups resident in Finland. Methods: This cohort...

Objective To examine whether physical inactivity is a risk factor for dementia, with attention to the role of cardiometabolic disease in this association and reverse causation bias that arises from changes in physical activity in the preclinical (prodromal) phase of dementia. Design Meta-analysis of 19 prospective observational cohort studies. Da...

Aims: Higher incidence of psychotic disorders in high-income countries for migrants compared with the settled majority has been well established. However, it is less clear to what extent different migrants groups have accessed and utilised mental health care. This study aimed to identify the hazard of antipsychotic medication use in the largest mi...

The chapter explores the role of long-term societal and cultural changes in the emergence of socio-emotional problems such as work stress. Building on Finnish historical datasets, it shows how psychosocial well-being and discomfort became an acute issue in different occupational sectors and in public awareness between the 1930s and 2010s. The chapt...

Purpose: The aim of the study was to investigate sickness absence due to mental disorders in human service occupations. Methods: Participants (n = 1,466,100) were randomly selected from two consecutive national 9-year cohorts from the Statistics Finland population database; each cohort represented a 33% sample of the Finnish population aged 25-5...

Background Lifestyle factors influence the risk of morbidity and mortality, but the extent to which they are associated with employees' absence from work due to illness is unclear. We examined the relative contributions of smoking, alcohol consumption, high body-mass index, and low physical activity to diagnosis-specific sickness absence. Methods...

Background Although some cardiovascular disease prevention guidelines suggest a need to manage work stress in patients with established cardiometabolic disease, the evidence base for this recommendation is weak. We sought to clarify the status of stress as a risk factor in cardiometabolic disease by investigating the associations between work stres...

Background: Although some cardiovascular disease prevention guidelines suggest a need to manage work stress in patients with established cardiometabolic disease, the evidence base for this recommendation is weak. We sought to clarify the status of stress as a risk factor in cardiometabolic disease by investigating the associations between work str...

Purpose: This study aimed to examine the long-term changes and socioeconomic disparities in hospitalization for affective and neurotic disorders among the Finnish working-age population from 1976 to 2010. Methods: Register-based study, consisting of a 5-year follow-up of 3,223,624 Finnish working-age (18-64-year old) individuals in seven consecu...

Objectives To examine antidepressant use among male and female human service professionals. Methods A random sample of individuals between 25 years and 54 years of age (n=752 683; 49.2% women; mean age 39.5 years). Information about each individual’s filled antidepressant prescriptions from 1995 to 2014 was provided by the Social Insurance Institu...

Background: It is unknown whether newer, mainly selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, and older tricyclic antidepressants are used similarly regardless of the geographical area of residence and education. Methods: We included four randomly sampled cohorts of the Finnish working aged population (n = 998,540-1,033,135). The sampling (Dec 31st i...

Background: Although income level may play a significant part in mortality among migrants, previous research has not focused on the relationship between income, migration and mortality risk. The aim of this register study was to compare all-cause mortality by income level between different migrant groups and the majority settled population of Finl...

The study examines Finnish discussions on student-centred school culture and teachers’ emotional labour from a sociological and historical perspective. It employs a thematic analysis of articles published in a Finnish teachers’ professional magazine from 1979 to 2011. In interpreting the data, the study draws from emotional labour research and Wout...

This article studies social workers’ occupational discussions on the complexities of their work in a Finnish social workers’ trade union journal in 1958–1999. The journal illustrates the flip side of social work; the quest for professionalization, the struggle for fair pay, and social workers’ perceptions of their occupational status and job dissat...

Background Previous studies investigating the mental health of migrants have shown mixed results. The increased availability of register data has led to a growing number of register-based studies in this research area. This is the first scoping review on the use of registry and record-linkage data to examine the mental health of migrant populations...

Background Adverse psychosocial working environments characterized by job strain (the combination of high demands and low control at work) are associated with an increased risk of depressive symptoms among employees, but evidence on clinically diagnosed depression is scarce. We examined job strain as a risk factor for clinical depression. Method W...

Background: Job insecurity has been associated with certain health outcomes. We examined the role of job insecurity as a risk factor for incident diabetes. Methods: We used individual participant data from 8 cohort studies identified in 2 open-access data archives and 11 cohort studies participating in the Individual-Participant-Data Meta-analys...

Suomalalaisten työyhteisöjen monimuotoisuuden kirjo on laaja ja se tulee laajene-maan erityisesti monikulttuuristumisen myötä. Työyhteisöjen monimuotoisuus kat-taa työntekijöiden erilaisuuden mm. iän, sukupuolen, etnisen taustan, sukupuolisen suuntautumisen, perhetilanteen, vammaisuuden, kielen, uskonnon ja vakaumuksen. Vuoden 2016 barometri kuvaa,...

In this article we examine the treatment of psychosocial risks in public occupational health discourse in Finnish newspaper and magazine articles between the 1960s and 2000s, using discourse analysis. Building on class theories, our aim is to investigate how class expectations have been linked with the redefinition of occupational health risks duri...

Objectives Epidemiological studies have shown an association between educational credentials and mental disorders, but have not offered any explanation for the varying strength of this association in different historical contexts. In this study, we investigate the education-specific trends in hospitalisation due to psychiatric disorders in Finnish...

The article discusses the change in attitudes towards school discipline in Finnish schoolteachers’ professional journals from the late 1950s to the early 1980s. In explaining this change, the article draws from the studies of Cas Wouters and Arlie Hochschild. At the beginning of the studied period, the discussions in the schoolteachers’ professiona...

Psychosocial stress at work has been proposed to be a risk factor for cardiovascular disease. However, its role as a risk factor for stroke is uncertain. We conducted an individual-participant-data meta-analysis of 196 380 males and females from 14 European cohort studies to investigate the association between job strain, a measure of work-related...

Background The health transition theory argues that societal changes produce proportional changes in causes of disability and death. The aim of this study was to identify long-term changes in main causes of hospitalization in working-age population within a nation that has experienced considerable societal change. Methodology National trends in al...

Stress at work is a frequent subject of scientific research. In most of this, the unit of analysis has been the employee and his or her work stress. Historical, cultural and macro-contextual approaches have rarely been included in the analytical framework. In this study, we examined secular trends in scientific publications on work stress, and anal...

International mobility of health care professionals is increasing, though little is known about how working in a culturally diverse team affects the native physicians’ psychosocial work environment. We examined Finnish physicians’ perceptions of work-related wellbeing according to whether they had foreign-born colleagues (FBCs) in their work unit....

Objective: The status of psychosocial stress at work as a risk factor for type 2 diabetes is unclear because existing evidence is based on small studies and is subject to confounding by lifestyle factors, such as obesity and physical inactivity. This collaborative study examined whether stress at work, defined as "job strain," is associated with i...

Objective: To determine whether transitions in the hospitalization structure of different occupational groups have followed similar trends. Methods: Secular trends for all-cause hospitalization and five main diagnostic categories among six occupational groups were examined between 1976 and 2010 in Finland. The register-based study consisted of a...

Purpose: The aim of this study was to investigate the differences in hospitalizations between different industries in the Finnish working-age population between 1976 and 2010. Methods: Participants (n = 3,769,355) were randomly selected from seven independent consecutive national cohorts in the Statistics Finland population database, each repres...

To the Editor:Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a major cause of mortality and disability worldwide (1). The clinical course of COPD is characterised by exacerbations, which can be minor and manageable at home or in primary care, or severe, leading to hospitalisation or even death. Known causes of exacerbations include tobacco smoke,...

The global recession has forced the Finnish forest industry to carry out major restructuring activities. Employees have faced different kinds of restructuring, mainly aimed at reducing staff and production. Many studies have shown the negative consequences of restructuring on employee well-being by using negative, ill-health indicators. Our aim is...

Background A previous review showed that high stress increases the risk of occupational injury by three- to five-fold. However, most of the prior studies have relied on short follow-ups. In this prospective cohort study we examined the effect of stress on recorded hospitalised injuries in an 8-year follow-up. Methods A total of 16,385 employees of...

Objectives: Recent research from industrial employees suggests the components of job control might be differently associated with mortality; high skill discretion with lower but high decision authority with higher mortality. This observation has not been confirmed in other cohorts. Methods: The purpose of this study is to further examine the ass...

Many patients and healthcare professionals believe that work-related psychosocial stress, such as job strain, can make asthma worse, but this is not corroborated by empirical evidence. We investigated the associations between job strain and the incidence of severe asthma exacerbations in working-age European men and women. We analysed individual-le...

To the Editor:Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a major cause of mortality and disability worldwide (1). The clinical course of COPD is characterised by exacerbations, which can be minor and manageable at home or in primary care, or severe, leading to hospitalisation or even death. Known causes of exacerbations include tobacco smoke,...