Tea Lallukka

• Professor of Medical Sociology
• Professor at University of Helsinki

Introduction This salutogenic-oriented study focuses on weight management among retired individuals living with obesity. We also consider individuals’ educational level, as higher education has been linked to enhanced health and well-being, and improved access to and utilization of various resources. Our research question was: How do retired indivi...

Background Several potentially modifiable risk factors are associated with subjective cognitive decline (SCD). However, developmental patterns of these risk factors have not been used before to forecast later SCD. Practical tools for the prevention of cognitive decline are needed. Objective We examined multifactorial trajectories of risk factors a...

Background Recurrent pain is associated with subsequent sickness absence and disability retirement, however, its modifiable risk factors have been less frequently studied among young and early midlife employees. This study aimed to identify workload and health-related factors associated with recurrent pain among young and early midlife employees, a...

This register-linked follow-up study examined whether psychological distress and demanding working conditions are jointly associated with short and long sickness absence (SA) periods among young and midlife Finnish public sector employees. We linked the Helsinki Health Study survey (response rate 51.5%, 80% women, ages 19–39 years in 2017) on psych...

Background Having lunch at the staff canteen has been shown to be associated with daily food consumption and generally healthier food habits in employed populations but associations with the consumption of different types of plant foods have not been investigated. This study among Finnish municipal employees examined whether having lunch at the sta...

Aims The aim of this study was to examine the changes in pensioners’ perceived physical workload and the physical strenuousness of work before and after transition to partial disability pension (pDP), and whether these changes were associated with subsequent transition to full disability pension (fDP). Methods We used survey data on physical workl...

Background Given Japan's rapidly ageing demographic structure, comprehensive and long-term evaluations of its national and subnational health progress are important to inform public health policy. This study aims to assess Japan's population health, using the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2021 to analyse the coun...

Background Regular physical activity is recommended for all aged 5 years and older, but the health benefits gained might differ across population subgroups. The aim of this study was to examine these benefits in terms of years lived free from major non-communicable diseases in subgroups with varying levels of risk factors. Methods Our analysis was...

Background: Physical inactivity and sedentary behavior are associated with mental ill-health. We examined changes in leisure-time physical activity (LTPA) and sedentary time, and their associations with psychological distress in an occupational cohort. Methods: We used phase 1 survey data, collected among the employees of the City of Helsinki, F...

Background Health behaviors, health, and income change during aging. However, no previous studies have examined, how they develop together over the transition to statutory retirement. We aimed to examine their joint development and to identify the determinants of any distinct trajectories. Methods We studied former employees of the City of Helsink...

This paper reviews the scientific evidence on new anti-amyloid monoclonal antibodies for treating Alzheimer's disease as a case study for improving scientific evidence communication. We introduce five guidelines condensed from the biomedical evidence literature but adapted to the short format of science communication in e.g. journal opinion pieces...

We conducted the first validation of the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS-21) in Finnish.DASS-21 is a short public-domain questionnaire, which presents a way to quickly and effectivelyscreen for mental ill-health. We recruited two large samples, one aged 24–45 (N = 3,101 [2,488women]), the other aged 60–82 (N = 5,462 [4,473 women]), all emplo...

Background Sickness absence (SA) poses an important and costly societal and public health challenge. However, no previous studies have investigated SA trajectories among individuals in their first full-time employment, delving into the contribution of early SA to future long-term absence among young employees. We aimed to identify SA trajectories i...

Background The association of workload and performance with physical functioning is recognised among the ageing public sector workforce. The characteristics of working conditions and social- and health-related factors associated with physical functioning after statutory retirement are still unknown. Also, previous studies on changes in physical fun...

Background and objectives Associations between fruit and vegetable consumption and mental health have been observed, but studies comparing different types of plant foods are sparse. This study among Finnish municipal employees examined associations of the consumption of a range of different plant foods with emotional well-being (EWB). Data and met...

Objectives This study aimed to identify distinct trajectories of long-term sickness absence (LTSA, >10 consecutive working days) among young and early midlife Finnish employees who experienced pain at baseline. It also aimed to determine the pain characteristics and occupational and lifestyle factors associated with these LTSA patterns. Design Lon...

Purpose Psychological distress has been associated with sickness absence (SA), but less is known about whether there are distinct patterns in the development of SA among people with psychological distress. We examined trajectories of short- and long-term SA among employees with psychological distress and how social and health-related factors are as...

Background Several potentially modifiable risk factors are associated with subjective cognitive decline (SCD). However, developmental patterns of these risk factors have not been used before to forecast later SCD. Practical tools for the prevention of cognitive decline are needed. We examined multifactorial trajectories of risk factors, and their a...

Background Psychological distress has increased remarkably, especially among younger age groups, during the last years. Both psychological distress and exposure to strenuous working conditions are known risk factors for sickness absence (SA). We examined whether psychological distress and working conditions are jointly associated with SA periods of...

Background Overweight and obesity are global health concerns, especially significant for older adults at higher risk for chronic diseases. The transition to retirement, altering daily routines, highlights the need for adequate weight management support. Since obesity is a challenging topic in healthcare and socioeconomic inequalities exist in acces...

OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to examine (i) if work-to-family conflicts (WtFC) and family-to-work conflicts (FtWC) are associated with sickness absence due to mental disorders and (ii) whether these associations are different among health and social care (HSC) employees compared to other municipal employee sectors. METHODS: The Helsinki Health Stud...

Background Mental distress among retirees and older people is a severe public health challenge, and information on new risk groups is needed. This study aims to identify subgroups of old-age retirees with varying associations between low social support and mental distress by applying model-based recursive partitioning (MOB). Methods We used the He...

Childhood disadvantage is associated with increased adult psychological distress, but the role of behavioral risk factors in the pathway remains unclear. We examined whether behavioral risk factors mediate the effects of childhood disadvantage on adult psychological distress. We used the Helsinki Health Study data of employees of the City of Helsin...

While there is substantial evidence on excess mortality in the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, no study has conducted a cause-specific analysis of excess mortality for the whole period 2020–2022 across multiple countries. We examined cause-specific excess mortality during 2020–2022 in Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden—four countries wi...

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many advocacy groups and individuals criticized governments on social media for doing either too much or too little to mitigate the pandemic. In this article, we review advocacy for COVID-19 elimination or “zero-covid” on the social media platform X (Twitter). We present a thematic analysis of tweets by 20 influential...

BACKGROUND Several potentially modifiable risk factors are associated with subjective cognitive decline (SCD). However, developmental patterns of these risk factors have not been used before to forecast later SCD. Practical tools for the prevention of cognitive decline are needed. OBJECTIVE We examined multifactorial trajectories of risk factors,...

We studied the developmental trajectories of satisfaction with work–family reconciliation (WFS) and their associations with family—related factors and quality of life measures among municipal employees. The study was based on the Helsinki Health Study of municipal employees of the City of Helsinki in 2001–02 and its follow-up surveys in 2007, 2012,...

Osatyökyvyttömyyseläkeläisten määrä on kasvussa yleisimpänä myöntöperusteenaan tuki- ja liikuntaelinsairaudet. Tässä tutkimuksessa selvitimme, missä määrin osatyökyvyttömyyseläkeläiset raportoivat fyysistä kuormitusta työssään ja miten kuormitustekijät ovat yhteydessä täydelle työkyvyttömyyseläkkeelle siirtymiseen. Tiedot osatyökyvyttömyyseläkkeen...

Background The Nordic countries represent a unique case study for the COVID-19 pandemic due to socioeconomic and cultural similarities, high-quality comparable administrative register data and notable differences in mitigation policies during the pandemic. We aimed to compare weekly excess mortality in the Nordic countries across the three full pan...

Background Short- and long-term sickness absence (SA) vary in their determinants. We examined short- and long-term SA contemporaneously as two interconnected phenomena to characterize their temporal development, and to identify employees with increasing SA at an early stage. Methods We extracted 46- to 55-year-old employed women from the Helsinki...

Background Work–family conflicts (WFC) have been associated with poor mental health, poor self-rated health and sickness absence. However, studies on short sickness absence are lacking and more information is needed also about long sickness absence regarding the direction of WFC, and potential explaining factors particularly among young and early m...

Over recent decades, sickness absence due to common mental disorders has increased among young workers. The phenomenon is mostly understood on the basis of epidemiological research, and knowledge regarding the viewpoints of young workers themselves is lacking. Our study explored the explanations for mental health‐related sickness absence in the nar...

Objective The objective of this review is to synthesize the best available qualitative evidence on the weight management practices, views, and experiences of adults living with poor socioeconomic circumstances and obesity. Additionally, the review aims to deepen our understanding of the common narratives of obesity according to these people. Intro...

Background While there is substantial evidence on excess mortality in the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, no study has conducted a cause-specific analysis of excess mortality for the whole period 2020–2022 across multiple countries. We examined cause-specific excess mortality during 2020–2022 in Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden – four...

Purpose To examine how the level of perceived work ability and its changes over time are associated with the risk of full disability pension (DP) among those receiving partial DP. Methods We retrieved survey data on perceived work ability and covariates (sociodemographic factors and health behaviors) from a cohort study of Finnish public sector em...

Background Physical inactivity and sedentary behaviour are major public health problems. We examined the individual and joint associations of leisure-time physical activity (LTPA) and total sitting time with emotional wellbeing, physical functioning and work ability in young and early midlife employees. Methods Cross-sectional questionnaire survey...

Background Context including the external context may considerably affect the adoption, implementation, sustainment, and scale-up of evidence-based practices. We investigated external contextual features by conducting a scoping review of empirical research regarding the implementation of an evidence-based psychiatric or mental health vocational reh...

Retirement years are ideally spent in good health. We aimed to produce new information using person-oriented methods by identifying groups of statutory retirees who did or did not achieve this objective and the factors that distinguish these groups from each other. Our particular focus was on the years directly after the transition into retirement,...

Introduction: Overweight/obesity and strenuous working conditions are associated with work disability, but their joint contributions to sickness absence (SA) are unknown. We aimed to examine their joint contributions to SA periods of 1-7 and ≥8 days. Methods: Self-reported data on body mass index and working conditions, including perceived physi...

Background Health behaviours, health and socioeconomic position, particularly income, are known to change during ageing. However, no previous study has examined how they develop together over statutory retirement transition. We aimed to examine this joint development and to identify determinants of distinct groups. Methods We examined former emplo...

Introduction Insomnia symptoms and high body mass index (BMI) are separately associated with poorer cognitive functioning. However, little is known about dual associations of sleep and obesity, and the changes in subjective cognitive functioning. We used a person-oriented approach to identify these dual trajectories and their associations with chan...

Objectives High workloads and stress of healthcare workforce are global phenomena. We aimed to study work related stress and recovery of nurses with both subjective and objective methods, also aiming to examine if associations exist between subjective high work stress and need for recovery, and objectively measured stress and recovery. Methods Stu...

Background Previous studies have shown higher long-term sickness absence (LTSA) rates among employees with pain as compared to those not reporting pain. We examined distinct developmental patterns in LTSA (≥10 consecutive working days) among young and early midlife employees with pain at baseline, and factors associated with LTSA trajectories. Met...

It is unclear how much costs economic difficulties incur to the health and social care sector, which is a critical research gap to support the economic case for preventing child poverty. We examine the health and social service costs due to families entering into, and transitioning out of, social assistance used as a proxy measure for economic diff...

Background The ageing work force is heterogeneous, following distinct development in work ability. This study aims to identify trajectories of long-term sickness absence (SA) in later careers and to examine potentially modifiable factors associated with the development of SA. Methods Data comprised of municipal employees of the city of Helsinki ag...

Background . Decreased work ability due to mental disorders is a growing concern in Europe. We studied the role of work-family conflicts in association with long-term sickness absence due to mental disorders (LTSA-MD). Methods . Baseline data were extracted from the Helsinki Health Study for women aged 40 to 55 in full-time work in 2001 − 2002 (N...

Background: Pain conditions and poorer mental health are associated with work disability. However, few studies have examined the association of concurrent pain and poorer mental health with sickness absence among younger employees. We examined separate and joint associations of chronic pain, multisite pain, and mental health with total and long-te...

Objectives Unhealthy behaviours are associated with increased sickness absence (SA), but few studies have considered person-oriented approach in these associations. Using latent class analysis, we examined clustering of unhealthy behaviours among Finnish municipal employees and their associations with subsequent SA. Design A prospective register-l...

Background Occupational class inequalities in physical functioning and their changes after retirement are poorly understood. We examined occupational class trajectories in physical functioning 10 years before and after transition to old-age and disability retirement. We included working conditions and behavioural risk factors as covariates, given t...

Background: The gendered division of labour contributes to differences in the way time is spent and experienced by women and men. Time spent in paid and unpaid labour is associated with sleep outcomes, therefore, we examined (i) the relationships between time use and time pressure, and sleep, and (ii) whether these relationships were modified by g...

The Nordic countries offer an ideal case study of the COVID-19 pandemic due to their comparability, high data quality, and variable mitigations. We investigated the age- and sex-specific mortality patterns during 2020-2021 for the five Nordic countries and analysed the total age- and sex-adjusted excess deaths, ratios of actual to expected death ra...

Aim Our aim in this paper was to estimate the contribution of different parental specialised health care diagnoses to the subsequent risk of entry into the social assistance system for families with children in the period 1998–2013. Methods We used longitudinal population-level register data consisting of all children born in 1997 in Finland and t...

Objective: Previous literature has established associations between psychosocial working conditions and sickness absence (SA), but only few studies have examined associations among younger employees. This study aimed to investigate associations between psychosocial working conditions and SA among employees, aged 15-30 years, who entered the labor...

Aim Our aim in this paper is to quantify the contribution of different parental specialised health care diagnoses to the subsequent risk of entry into the social assistance system for families with children. Methods We used longitudinal population level register data consisting of all children born in 1997 in Finland and their registered parents (5...

The association between retirement and functioning remains still poorly known. This scoping review examines physical, social, cognitive, and mental functioning after retirement, describes the changes in them, determines the different aspects that affect functioning, and documents the main characteristics of the phenomenon. We systematically scoped...

Abstract Occupational class differences in leisure‐time physical activity (LTPA) are well recognized. Less is known about how these differences develop as individuals age, and how retirement is associated with this change. We investigated how occupational class differences in LTPA change in a cohort over a 15‐17 year follow‐up . We further examined...

Background: The Nordic countries are an ideal case study of the COVID-19 pandemic due to their comparability, high data quality, and variable responses. Excess mortality is a key metric but it is sensitive to data quality, model assumptions, and population structure, with diverse estimates published so far. Methods: We investigated the age- and sex...

Background Excess mortality during the COVID-19 pandemic is of major scientific and political interest. Methods We critically reviewed different estimates of all-cause excess mortality for the five Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden), which have been much studied during the COVID-19 pandemic, using the latest register d...

Background Unhealthy behaviours are associated with increased sickness absence (SA), but few studies have explored these associations using person-oriented approach. We aimed to identify latent classes of unhealthy behaviours among female and male employees and examined their associations with subsequent SA. Methods Health behaviours (leisure-time...

Background Longer work careers are discussed, but inequalities in health trajectories among employees facing retirement remain poorly understood. We examined social class trajectories in physical functioning among ageing female employees ten years before and after transition to old-age or disability retirement. Methods We used Helsinki Health Stud...

Background Both pain and mental illness associate with work disability. However, few studies have examined the association of concurrent pain and mental distress with sickness absence (SA). We examined separate and joint associations of chronic pain, multisite pain, and mental distress with total and long-term all-cause SA among young and midlife m...

Background: Adolescence psychiatric and neurodevelopmental diagnoses are common but their link to adulthood over-indebtedness is unknown. This study aims to determine this relationship and explores the possible mediating role of upper secondary education completion. Methods: We analyzed the 1987 Finnish Birth Cohort, which consisted of a complet...

Objectives We applied a person-oriented approach and used latent class linear mixed models to identify sleep trajectories that explain memory, concentration, and learning ability problems after retirement. Methods Data consist of prospective surveys from four phases of the Helsinki Health Study between 2000–2017 (n = 3748, aged 55–77 years, 80% wo...

To extend work careers, it is important to focus on all working-aged people including young adults. The aim of this study was to identify typical patterns of work participation among young adults after their first entry into the labour market and to examine whether the timing of entry together with parental and own socio-economic position and healt...

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...

Background: To characterize geospatial patterning of disadvantage in Sweden, we examined whether municipal-level indicators of socioeconomic disadvantage and disability pension (DP) rate were clustered, whether the different geospatial clusters were overlapping and whether the findings were similar among women and men. Methods: Administrative na...

Background Disadvantaged socioeconomic circumstances are associated with certain unhealthy food habits such as inadequate consumption of fruit and vegetables. This study examined whether multiple socioeconomic measures are consistently associated with a variety of food habits. Methods We examined associations of 2 childhood and 6 adult socioeconom...

Studies examining occupational class differences in burnout symptoms across employment sectors are scarce. The aim of this study was to examine whether occupational class is associated with emotional exhaustion, and whether there are differences in the examined associations between employment sectors. A further aim was to examine to which extent ps...

Sosioekonominen asema on keskeinen ruokatottumuksia määrittelevä tekijä. Työikäisessä väestössä alempi sosioekonominen asema on yhdistetty esimerkiksi vähäisempään kasvisten, hedelmien ja marjojen käyttöön sekä heikompaan kokonaisruokavalion laatuun. Ruokatottumusten sosioekonomisia eroja vanhuuseläkkeelle siirtymisen jälkeen on kuitenkin tutkittu...

Excess mortality during the Covid-19 pandemic are of major scientific and political interest. Here we review all-cause excess mortality estimates from different methods for the five Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden), which have been much studied during the Covid-19 pandemic. In the comparison of the methods, we use si...

During the COVID-19 pandemic, healthcare workers (HCWs) have faced unprecedented workloads and personal health risks leading to mental disorders and surges in sickness absence. Previous work has shown that interindividual differences in psychological resilience might explain why only some individuals are vulnerable to these consequences. However, n...

Aims: Parental education and childhood adversities are associated with long-term work disability but their contribution to sickness absence is largely unknown. We aimed to examine the associations between parental education, childhood adversities and self-certified and medically-certified sickness absence among midlife employees. Methods: The He...

Aims: Fruit and vegetable consumption is essential in disease prevention. Socioeconomic differences in consumption have been observed but evidence from longitudinal studies incorporating multiple socioeconomic indicators is lacking. We examined long-term fruit and vegetable consumption trajectories and multiple socioeconomic circumstances as their...

Background Mental health is a public health issue for European young people, with great heterogeneity in resource allocation. Representative population-based studies are needed. The Global Burden of Disease (GBD) Study 2019 provides internationally comparable information on trends in the health status of populations and changes in the leading cause...

The clustering of social disadvantage with attention‐deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in young adulthood is not well understood. We examined the clustering of ADHD with low educational attainment and unemployment in young adulthood; whether such clustering is stronger when unemployment is prolonged; and whether further clustering of disability...

Purpose Physical work exposures are associated with sickness absence among older employees. We aimed to examine if they similarly contribute to all-cause sickness absence during early and mid-careers. Methods We used questionnaire data on physical work exposures linked to register data on sickness absence from 3542 municipal employees aged 19–39 y...

Background Trajectory analyses are being increasingly used in efforts to increase understanding about the heterogeneity in the development of different longitudinal outcomes such as sickness absence, use of medication, income, or other time varying outcomes. However, several methodological and interpretational challenges are related to using trajec...

Aim The study aimed to critically review and synthesize the best available evidence about the effectiveness of therapist-guided internet-delivered cognitive behavioral therapy (iCBT) in terms of reducing sickness absence (SA). Methods We searched Medline (PubMed), Embase, PsycInfo, CINAHL, and Cochrane Central (up to November 2020) for English lan...

Background Pain is known to be socioeconomically patterned and associated with disability. However, knowledge is scarce concerning life-course socioeconomic circumstances and pain among young adults. Our aim was to examine the associations of childhood and current socioeconomic circumstances with acute pain and chronic pain with low and high disabi...

Työn fyysinen kuormittavuus on yhteydessä heikkoon fyysiseen toimintakykyyn keski-iän ylittäneillä työntekijöillä. Fyysisen toimintakyvyn ongelmia esiintyy myös nuoremmilla työntekijöillä, mutta heidän osaltaan työn fyysisen kuormittavuuden ja fyysisen toimintakyvyn yhteyttä ei ole tutkittu. Tässä tutkimuksessa selvitettiin, miten työn fyysinen kuo...

Background: To address the current COVID-19 and any future pandemic, we need a robust, real-time, and population-scale collection and analysis of data. Rapid and comprehensive knowledge on the trends in reported symptoms in populations provides an earlier window into the progressiong of the viral spread and helps to predict the needs and timing of...

BACKGROUND To address the current COVID-19 and any future pandemic, we need robust, real-time, and population-scale collection and analysis of data. Rapid and comprehensive knowledge on the trends in reported symptoms in populations provides an earlier window into the progression of viral spread, and helps to predict the needs and timing of profess...

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...

Objective: We examined associations between working conditions and sickness absence due to mental disorders (LTSA-MD) among younger female public sector employees from different employment sectors. Methods: Survey data collected in 2017 (n = 3,048) among 19-39-year-old female employees of the City of Helsinki, Finland, were used to examine job d...