Ijmert Kant

• Professor at Maastricht University

Background: The efficacy of an indicated prevention strategy for long-term absence due to sickness has been demonstrated and is implemented in multinational companies. Such a strategy may also be beneficial for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). However, due to the different contexts, adaption, and implementation of this strategy in SMEs m...

Objective Timely identification of colorectal cancer (CRC) survivors at risk of experiencing low health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in the near future is important for enabling appropriately tailored preventive actions. We previously developed and internally validated risk prediction models to estimate 1-year risk of low HRQoL in long-term CRC...

Background: A significant proportion of older employees leave the labour market early, amongst others via unemployment or disability benefits, implying that health might affect possibilities to extend working life. Objective: This study 1) examined associations between chronic conditions (subtypes) and self-perceived health (SPH), independently,...

Purpose European policy measures have led to an increased net labour participation of older employees. Yet, via different routes (for instance disability schemes) employees still often leave the labour market early. Mental health may be an important factor hindering labour participation. Aims of this study are twofold: first, to examine the relatio...

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via the original article.

Background An indicated prevention strategy (IPS), consisting of a screening questionnaire and early treatment, was found to be effective for the prevention of future long-term sickness absence (LTSA) in two large Dutch RCT’s. This IPS aims to detect employees who have a high risk to become absent, and subsequently offer them early treatment. Despi...

Objective: It was shown that an indicated prevention strategy (IPS), based on screening and early intervention, can considerably decrease future risk of long-term sickness absence (LTSA>28 days) over one year. Given the nature of the interventions, the potential of an effect extending beyond the original one year of follow-up might be present. Thi...

PurposeEvidence from cross-sectional studies suggests that higher levels of light-intensity physical activity (LPA) are associated with better health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in colorectal cancer (CRC) survivors. However, these associations have not been investigated in longitudinal studies that provide the opportunity to analyse how within-...

Sustainable employability refers to individuals’ long-term abilities to work and remain employed. Despite its societal importance in the light of aging populations and rapidly changing skill demands, sustainable employability still requires further definition and conceptualization. As such, the present paper aims to define and conceptualize sustain...

Background: Many colorectal cancer (CRC) survivors experience persisting health problems post-treatment that compromise their health-related quality of life (HRQoL). Prediction models are useful tools for identifying survivors at risk of low HRQoL in the future and for taking preventive action. Therefore, we developed prediction models for CRC sur...

Organizations aiming to help their employees in fostering their human capital offer training, but not all employees participate. Some organizations therefore experiment with training vouchers that typically offer financial means for training to motivate training participation. However, the effectiveness of such vouchers remains suboptimal, arguably...

Objectives: The nature of a construct's measurement model, most decisively being predominantly reflective or formative, is essential for its development, validation, and use. Differentiating between these types of measurement models cannot be done based on statistics alone, but has to rely on expert judgment, preferably guided by checklists and th...

Demographic and technological changes demand for sustainably employable employees. Various organizations therefore encourage their workforce to participate in training through voucher programs. Most voucher programs offer employees a budget to pay the training costs, but employees may also need time to be able to participate in training. The presen...

Background: Neighbourhood safety has repeatedly been shown to be associated with the health and well-being of the residents. Criminality is often seen as one of the key factors affecting neighbourhood safety. However, the relationship between crime, fear of crime and feelings of safety remains underexplored. Methods: Data on socio-demographic, h...

Purpose This study examines the relationship between need for recovery (NFR) and labour force exit (LFE) among older workers. Different types of LFE (early retirement, work disability and unemployment) are considered, and the role of potential confounding and modifying factors, including the availability of early LFE schemes, is examined. Also, ass...

Objective This opinion paper summarizes the main findings and recommendations of an advisory report on health and prolonging working life, which was requested by the Dutch Minister of Social Affairs and Employment. Methods The advisory report was compiled by a multidisciplinary committee of ten scientists appointed by the Health Council of The Neth...

Dit artikel is het derde in een reeks van drie artikelen die gebaseerd zijn op het onderzoeksprogramma Bevordering van de arbeidsparticipatie van oudere werknemers: een cohort studie naar de determinanten van gezond en prettig doorwerken op oudere leeftijd. Andere artikelen in deze reeks betreffen Bevordering arbeidsparticipatie oudere werknemers:...

Het voorliggende artikel is een tweede in een reeks van drie artikelen die gebaseerd zijn op het onderzoeksprogramma Bevordering van de arbeidsparticipatie van oudere werknemers: een cohort studie naar de determinanten van gezond en prettig doorwerken op oudere leeftijd. Andere artikelen in deze reeks betreffen Bevordering arbeidsparticipatie ouder...

Dit artikel is een eerste in een reeks van drie artikelen die gebaseerd zijn op het onderzoeksprogramma Bevordering van de arbeidsparticipatie van oudere werknemers: een cohortstudie naar de determinanten van gezond en prettig doorwerken op oudere leeftijd. Andere artikelen in deze reeks betreffen Bevordering arbeidsparticipatie oudere werknemers:...

Objectives: To elucidate the role and pathways of psychosocial home demands, psychosocial home resources and psychosocial job resources in relation to sickness absence among nurses working in residential elder care. Methods: Longitudinal (SEM) analysis with bootstrapping with a one year follow-up among 365 nurses were performed. Survey data and...

Objective: Constructs capturing health or functioning can have reflective and/or formative measurement models. Although a construct's measurement model has extensive implications on the construction, validation and use of a measurement instrument, measurement models are frequently wrongly or not explicitly specified. As this is likely due to a lac...

Background: Not much is known about the characteristics, course and prognosis of complaints of arm, neck and/or shoulder that have not been caused by a trauma or systemic disease (CANS), in a screened population. This study aims to: (1) describe personal and complaint characteristics in a screened population; (2) describe the course during one-yea...

Objectives Various cognitive and physical abilities decline with age. Consequently, sustainable employability research has focused on the labor market participation of older employees. However, it remains unclear whether age actually affects employees' work and labor-market functioning. A major complicating factor is that age effects can be distort...

Om psychosociale problemen binnen de jeugdgezondheidszorg (JGZ) tijdig te signaleren bij basis- en middelbare scholieren wordt er tijdens de periodieke gezondheidsonderzoeken (PGO) gebruik gemaakt van de Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). Voor de ondersteuning van deze vroegsignalering met behulp van de SDQ zijn er afkappunten opgestel...

With dual-income families on the increase, combining work and family obligations is a daily reality for many individuals. Unsatisfactory combinations of work and home duties can result in various unfavourable individual and organisational outcomes. Therefore, its proper understanding is essential in order to create adequate recommendations for inte...

Bergs Y, Hoofs H, Kant IJ, Slangen JJM, Jansen NWH. Work-family conflict and depressive complaints among Dutch employees: examining reciprocal associations in a longitudinal study. Scand J Work Environ Health. 2018;44(1):69-79. doi:10.5271/sjweh.3658 Objectives The aim of this study was to examine the reciprocal association between work-family conf...

Résumé À partir de données de l'étude de cohorte de Maastricht sur la fatigue au travail, relatives à la période 2012–2014, les auteurs examinent la fréquence et la dynamique de la sous‐qualification au sein d'un échantillon d'employés de bureau en fin de carrière, ainsi que ses effets sur les besoins de récupération, l'emploi et les projets de pré...

Resumen Con una muestra de trabajadores de edad tomada del Maastricht Cohort Study, los autores investigan empíricamente la prevalencia y la evolución de la infracapacitación autopercibida y sus efectos en la necesidad de recuperación de los trabajadores, su riesgo de pérdida del empleo y sus intenciones de jubilación de 2012 a 2014. Encuentran la...

Background: Need for recovery (NFR) and prolonged fatigue are two important concepts for monitoring short- and long-term outcomes of psychological job demands within employees. For effective monitoring it is, however, important to gain insight in the reproducibility of the instruments that are usedOBJECTIVE:The objective was to assess reproducibil...

Objective: Fatigue is an important health outcome in public and occupational health care. To correctly understand and treat high levels of (prolonged) fatigue it is important to disentangle the state of fatigue into a time-varying (occasion) and -invarying (trait) component. Not only for understanding of the construct itself over time but also for...

Background Sickness absence is highly prevalent and has a complex multifactorial aetiology. A multitude of approaches exist aimed at health, personal, work related and cultural factors. But also the context of legislation has to be addressed when developing, evaluating or implementing preventive interventions. Aims 1) To substantiate the role of l...

Background: Functioning including work participation, is an emerging challenge in occupational health. The prevention of long term sickness absence (LTSA) through a strategy involving screening and structured early consultation (preventive strategy) was proven effective and can address participation issues. Implementation of this strategy has prov...

Background: Many work-related items are not included in the current classification of environmental factors from the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF). Furthermore, personal factors are not classified and the ICF only provides a very limited list of examples. These facts make the ICF less useful for occupatio...

Given large changes in working conditions and society, occupational health care has to prioritize its efforts towards fostering health and functioning of workers and as such promote work participation. This requires that more emphasis is given on the application of biopsychological models in the care of workers. Although a biopsychological approach...

Bayesian confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) offers an alternative to frequentist CFA based on, for example, maximum likelihood estimation for the assessment of reliability and validity of educational and psychological measures. For increasing sample sizes, however, the applicability of current fit statistics evaluating model fit within Bayesian CFA...

This study aims to examine the impact of work-related and personal resources on older workers’ retirement intentions by studying the pathways (fatigue and work enjoyment) from resources to retirement intentions, the buffering role of resources for psychological job demands, in a cross-sectional and longitudinal timeframe. Longitudinal results on a...

Background: This paper addresses the need for a paradigm shift from post-diagnosis tertiary care towards maintenance and promotion of health across the lifespan, for healthcare in general and in occupational healthcare specifically. It is based on the assumption that the realization of this paradigm shift may be facilitated by teaching (future) oc...

Although only a relatively small percentage of workers report sick for longer than a few days or weeks, it should be noted that long-term sickness absence constitutes the major part of the already substantial costs of sickness absence for companies and society (1). Moreover, long-term absence from work has been associated with a further detrimental...

Background: When developing an effective early preventive strategy for employees and students with CANS (Complaints of Arm, Neck or Shoulder, not caused by acute trauma or systemic disease), insight in help seeking behaviour and knowledge of factors associated with help seeking behaviour within the target population, is a prerequisite. The aim of...

Sustainable employability (SE) is an important topic as it deals with employees’ abilities to function adequately at work and in the labor market throughout their work- ing lives. However, until now there has been only one attempt to define SE in the international literature (1). This first definition is a valuable contribution to the field as...

This study investigates (1) the prevalence and dynamics of being underskilled among a sample of older workers from the Maastricht Cohort Study (n=1,111) and (2) the impact of being underskilled on need for recovery (NFR), the risk of losing employment and retirement intentions prospectively over two years follow-up. Being underskilled was associate...

Objective: The impact of development and accommodation practices on older workers' retirement intentions was investigated in this prospective study, together with potential pathways and the role of career stage. Methods: A subsample of full-time, older workers (n = 678) from the Maastricht Cohort Study was followed-up for 2 years. Regression ana...

Thus far, many studies on the relationship between working time arrangements and work-family conflict have been cross-sectional in nature, where the direction of influence is difficult to interpret and causal conclusions cannot be drawn. The few existing longitudinal studies on this topic have mainly focused on the normal direction of the causal re...

Sedentary behavior (sitting/lying at low energy expenditure while awake) is emerging as an important risk factor that may compromise the health-related quality of life (HRQoL) of colorectal cancer (CRC) survivors. We examined associations of sedentary time with HRQoL in CRC survivors, 2–10years post-diagnosis. In a cross-sectional study, stage I–II...

Supplementary tables

Transparency document.

Om psychosociale problemen binnen de jeugdgezondheidszorg (JGZ) tijdig te signaleren bij basis- en middelbare scholieren wordt er tijdens de periodieke gezondheidsonderzoeken (PGO) gebruik gemaakt van de Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). Voor de ondersteuning van deze vroegsignalering met behulp van de SDQ zijn er afkappunten opgestel...

Purpose Previous research indicates that sedentary behavior is unfavorably associated with health-related quality of life (HRQoL) of colorectal cancer (CRC) survivors. Using isotemporal substitution modeling, we studied how substituting sedentary behavior with standing or physical activity was associated with HRQoL in CRC survivors, 2–10 years post...

Objective: Prospectively investigating whether different approaches of physical work demands are associated with need for recovery (NFR), employment status, retirement intentions, and ability to prolong working life among older employees from the industry and health care sector. Methods: A subsample from the Maastricht Cohort Study was studied (...

Number of respondents per neighbourhood

Association between neighborhood characteristics and overweight and obesity, stratified by education level£

We explored whether overweight and obesity were associated with the physical and social environment at neighborhood level. Data from Maastricht municipality survey (the Netherlands) were used (n = 9771 adults). Multinomial regression models were computed (outcome being normal weight, overweight, or obese). We found inconsistent associations between...

Background: Cardiovascular comorbidities are common in rheumatic diseases and are associated with an increased mortality risk but have not been studied in a working population, with less severe disease. Also, the impact of premature cardiovascular mortality on work participation has been neglected until now. Objectives: The objectives of this st...

Objective: Using the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health as a framework, this study investigates the impact of depression and diabetes mellitus on older workers' functioning (problems with concentration, physical functioning, need for recovery and work and social participation restrictions). The study focuses on how...

Emerging evidence suggests that light physical activity (LPA), besides moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA), may beneficially influence physical functioning of colorectal cancer survivors, but its relation with other health-related outcomes is unknown. We applied a biopsychosocial approach to investigate independent associations between se...

Background: The Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) is a screening instrument for psychosocial problems in children and adolescents, which is applied in "individual" and "collective" settings. Assessment in the individual setting is confidential for clinical applications, such as preventive child healthcare, while assessment in the colle...

This study investigates whether different shift work schedules, compared to day work, are associated with need for recovery (NFR), future disability, and retirement intentions for employees employed within different economic sectors over the course of their careers. Shift work exposure duration and the healthy worker effect are also examined. Data...

Het Digitaal Dossier (DD-JGZ) is in eerste instantie ontworpen om de individuele zorg van het kind te verbeteren. Daarnaast biedt digitalisering mogelijkheden voor epidemiologisch onderzoek, bijvoorbeeld, ten behoeve van beleidsadviezen aan lokale, regionale en landelijke overheden en uitvoeringspartijen.

We read with much interest the article of Schouten et al (1) on identifying workers with a high risk for future long-term sickness absence using the Work Ability Index (WAI). The ability to identify high-risk workers might facilitate targeted interventions for such workers and, consequently, can reduce sickness absence levels and improve workers' h...

Purpose: Employees experiencing a high need for recovery (NFR) are at risk of long-term adverse effects in both their health and labour participation. So far, the determinants of NFR across age categories remain unknown. The aim of this study is to investigate the determinants of the NFR among employees in three age categories (30-44, 45-54 and 55...

Characteristics of an individual alone cannot exhaustively explain all the causes of poor health, and neighborhood of residence have been suggested to be one of the factors that contribute to health. However, knowledge about aspects of the neighborhood that are most important to health is limited. The main objective of this study was to explore ass...

Background: Well-designed studies on lifestyle and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in colorectal cancer survivors based on a biopsychosocial instead of a traditional biomedical approach are warranted. We report on the applicability of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health (ICF) as useful biopsychosocial fram...

Background Most studies on cardiovascular mortality in patients with inflammatory rheumatic diseases (IRD) have been performed in clinical cohorts, defining patients with relatively severe disease.[1] Working persons with IRD are thought to have a milder disease activity than persons in the general population with these diseases and consequently le...

Background Rheumatic diseases are an important cause of sick leave and work disability in almost all Western societies.[1, 2] Up until now, the majority of studies has been performed in the inflammatory rheumatic diseases (e.g. rheumatoid arthritis) while less evidence is available for other rheumatic diseases that are more prevalent and potentiall...

Objective To determine the risk of sick leave and work disability in relation to rheumatic diseases and cardiovascular comorbidities among working individuals. Methods Employees (n = 12,140) from 45 companies in The Netherlands were prospectively followed up from 1998-2008. Questionnaires were used to assess self-reported diseases and employment st...

To examine the impact of personal attributes (coping and negative affectivity) on the association between cumulative exposure to work stressors and cardiovascular disease (CVD). 6154 employees from the Maastricht Cohort Study (MCS) were selected who had complete data on the MCS Work Stressor Score (MCS-WSS) at three consecutive time points during 1...

Objective: To explore the stability of exposure to work stressors over time and to examine the impact of different approaches of estimating exposure on the cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk estimation. Methods: The Maastricht Cohort Study-Work Stressor Score was used to assess work stressors at three consecutive time points among 6154 employees...

Purpose: The currently used instruments which measure the psychosocial work environment have been criticized. We analyzed the association between work stressors and cardiovascular disease, using the Maastricht Cohort Study Work Stressor Score (MCS-WSS), a comprehensive measure which has been associated with work strain. Methods: At baseline 11,4...

Training in Evidence Based Medicine (EBM) is part of each medical and healthcare educational program. Learning skills which are essential for thinking and working in an evidence based manner are the core subject of this manual. This manual is based on the method of Critical Appraisal of a Topic (CAT) and a decade of experience in teaching CAT to th...

Onderwerp: Het terugdringen van langdurig ziekteverzuim. Doel: Onderzoeken van de effectiviteit van gestructureerde vroegtijdige begeleiding onder medewerkers met verhoogd risico op langdurig toekomstig ziekteverzuim, in het voorkomen en/of verminderen van ziekteverzuim. Het experiment was gericht op de timing van de interventie, d.w.z. behandelin...

Reliable retrospective exposure assessment continues to be a challenge in most population-based studies. Several methodologies exist for estimating exposures retrospectively, of which case-by-case expert assessment and job-exposure matrices (JEMs) are commonly used. This study evaluated the reliability of exposure estimates for selected carcinogens...

To assess which work stressors are substantially contributing to work strain and examine their relative contribution. We prospectively examined the association between work stressors and work strain, which was defined as employees reporting ill due to work stress. Relevant work stressors were combined into a stressor score with each stressor having...

Objectives: Studies about job strain and cardiovascular disease (CVD) have yielded inconsistent results, which hinders making a firm conclusion about the association. Inconsistent findings may be the result of methodological differences. If the relative CVD risk is influenced by methodological differences, these differences should be explored in m...

To study the properties of a screening instrument in predicting long-term sickness absence among employees with depressive complaints. Employees at high risk of future sickness absence were selected by the screening instrument Balansmeter (BM). Depressive complaints were assessed with the depression scale of the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scal...

The aim of this study was to examine longitudinally the mutual relationship between shift work and depressive complaints. Data from the ongoing Maastricht cohort study (1998-2008) were used. Firstly, the impact of shift work on the development of depressive complaints, defined as depressed mood, was studied. Both prospective and retrospective appro...

To examine the efficacy of early intervention on the prevention of long-term sickness absence and major depression among employees at high risk of future sickness absence and with mild to severe depressive complaints. Randomised controlled trial conducted among employees working in an office environment. 139 employees were identified both at high r...

Existing longitudinal studies on the relationship between working time arrangements (WTA) and work-family conflict have mainly focused on the normal causal relationship, that is, the impact of WTA on work-family conflict over time. So far, however, the reversed relationship, that is, the effect of work-family conflict on adjustments in WTA over tim...

The impact of working time arrangements (WTA) on health has been studied extensively. Still, little is known about the interrelation between work schedules, working hours, and depressed mood. For work schedules, the underlying assumptions regarding depressed mood refer to a disturbance of social and biological rhythms, whereas for working hours, th...

The aim of this study was to examine the associations between on the one hand depressive complaints and risk of future sickness absence and on the other hand experience of health complaints and help seeking behavior in the working population. Cross-sectional data were used from employees working in the banking sector (n = 8,498). The screening inst...

Burnout and chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) are two fatigue syndromes which have developed largely independently from each other, yet whose similarities in symptoms can be a source of confusion. We aim to explore the phenomenology of burnout and CFS in a historical context as this may provide some insight into the links and relationship between thes...

To investigate the impact of increasing age on the need for recovery (NFR) over time among day workers The study is based on data from the first 2 years of follow-up of the Maastricht Cohort Study (n = 7,734). To investigate whether age predicted the onset of elevated NFR, multivariate survival analyses were conducted The highest levels of NFR were...