Search

This paper is among the first to investigate the impact of over-education and over-skilling on workers' wages using a unique pan-European database covering twenty-eight countries for the year 2014, namely the CEDEFOP's European Skills and Jobs (ESJ) survey. Overall, the results suggest the existence of a wage penalty associated with over-education. When the educational and the skills mismatches are interacted with each other in order to distinguish apparent over-education from genuine over-education, the results highlight that the workers with the highest wage penalty are those who are both over-educated and over-skilled.

This paper is among the first to investigate the impact of over-education and over-skilling on workers' wages using a unique pan-European database covering twenty-eight countries for the year 2014, namely the CEDEFOP's European Skills and Jobs (ESJ) survey. Overall, the results suggest the existence of a wage penalty associated with over-education. When the educational and the skills mismatches are interacted with each other in order to distinguish apparent over-education from genuine over-education, the results highlight that the workers with the highest wage penalty are those who are both over-educated and over-skilled. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives To analyse the associations between socioeconomic status (SES), measured using occupation, and self-reported health, and to examine the contribution of various material, occupational and psychosocial factors to social inequalities in health in Europe. Methods This study was based on data from the European Quality of Life Survey (EQLS) carried out in 2003. The total sample consisted of 6038 and 6383 working men and women in 28 countries in Europe (response rates: 30.3-91.2%). Each set of potential material, occupational and psychosocial mediators included between eight and 11 variables. Statistical analysis was performed using multilevel logistic regression analysis. Results Significant social differences were observed for self-reported health, manual workers being more likely to be in poor health (OR=1.89, 95% CI 1.46 to 2.46 for men, OR=2.18, 95% CI 1.71 to 2.77 for women). Strong social gradients were found for almost all potential mediating factors, and almost all displayed significant associations with self-reported health. Social differences in health were substantially reduced after adjustment for material, occupational and psychosocial factors, with material factors playing a major role. The four strongest contributions to reducing these differences were found for material deprivation, social exclusion, financial problems and job reward. Taking all mediators into account led to an explanation of the social differences in health by 78-100% for men and women. Conclusion The association between SES and poor health may be attributed to differential distributions of several dimensions of material, occupational and psychosocial conditions across occupational groups. Interventions targeting different dimensions might result in a reduction in social inequalities in health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Social inequalities in mental health have been demonstrated but understanding the mechanisms remains unclear. This study aims at exploring the role of psychosocial work factors in explaining occupational inequalities in mental health among European employees., Methods: The study sample covered 33,443 employees coming from the European Working Conditions Survey 2010. Mental health was measured by the WHO-5 well-being index and socioeconomic position by occupation. Twenty-five psychosocial work factors were constructed including job demands, job influence and development, role stressors, social support, quality of leadership, discrimination, violence at work, working hours, job promotion, job insecurity and work-life imbalance. Multilevel linear regressions and bootstrap analyses were performed., Results: Occupational differences were observed for poor mental health and almost all psychosocial work factors. Factors related to job demands, influence and development at work, social relationships and leadership, working hours and other factors contributed to explain the occupational inequalities in mental health. In particular, factors related to influence and development contributed substantially. Among men, workplace violences were found to contribute little whereas among women these factors did not play a role., Conclusions: Future prevention interventions should have a broad and comprehensive focus in order to reduce social inequalities in mental health., (© The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Faculty of Public Health. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.)

The objective was to explore the educational differences in psychological well-being, measured using the WHO-5 Index, among 15,362 men and 20,272 women in 31 European countries. Relative Index of Inequality, multilevel logistic regression analyses and interaction tests were performed. Within Europe, large cross-national differences in the prevalence of poor well-being were observed. In almost all countries, the prevalence of poor well-being was higher in low educational groups, but the magnitude of these inequalities was much larger in some countries than in others. The highest social differences in well-being were observed in the European Union candidates countries among both genders. Future health promotion programs should consider strategies that target lower educational groups.

Purpose: The aim of this study was to explore the associations between psychosocial working conditions and psychological well-being among employees in 34 European countries. Another objective was to examine whether these associations varied according to occupation and country., Methods: The study was based on data from the European Working Conditions Survey 2010 including 33,443 employees, 16,512 men and 16,931 women, from 34 European countries. Well-being was measured by the WHO-5 well-being index. Twenty-five psychosocial work factors were constructed including job demands, role stressors, work hours, job influence and freedom, job promotion, job insecurity, social support, quality of leadership, discrimination and violence at work, and work-life imbalance. The associations between these factors and well-being were examined using multilevel logistic regression analyses. Different models were performed including interaction tests., Results: When all 25 psychosocial work factors were studied simultaneously in the same model with adjustment variables, 13 showed a significant association with poor well-being among both genders: quantitative demands, demands for hiding emotions, low possibilities for development, low meaning of work, low role conflict, low quality of leadership, low social support, low sense of community, job insecurity, low job promotion, work-life imbalance, discrimination, and bullying. The association with low sense of community on poor well-being was particularly strong., Conclusions: A large number of psychosocial work factors were associated with poor well-being. Almost no country and occupational differences were found in these associations. This study gave a first European overview and could be useful to inform cross-national policy debate.

Background: The aim of this study was to explore the associations between socio-demographic, psychosocial, material and occupational factors and self-reported health (SRH) in the European working population. Another objective was to examine whether these associations varied according to occupation and country., Methods: This study was based on data from the European quality of life survey 2007 including 17,005 workers from 31 European countries. SRH was measured using a single item. Factors were classified into four different groups: socio-demographic, psychosocial, material and occupational factors. The associations between these factors and SRH were examined using multilevel logistic regression analyses including interaction tests., Results: When all four groups of factors were studied together, age, occupation, urbanization level, origin, trust level, social exclusion, material deprivation, financial and neighbourhood problems, access to medical services, quality of public services, psychological job demands, job reward, work-life imbalance and dangerous/unhealthy working conditions were associated with poor SRH. Almost no differences were found in these associations according to occupation and country., Conclusion: Various factors were associated with poor SRH. This study gave a first European overview of the associations between socio-demographic, psychosocial, material and occupational factors and SRH in Europe and could provide better advice to policy-makers at a European level., (© The Author 2013. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Faculty of Public Health. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.)

Objectives: The aim of this study was to evaluate the fractions of cardiovascular diseases and mental disorders attributable to three psychosocial work factors, job strain, effort-reward imbalance (ERI) and job insecurity, in 31 countries in Europe., Methods: The prevalence of exposure (Pe) to job strain, ERI and job insecurity was calculated using the sample of 29,680 workers from 31 countries of the 2005 European Working Conditions Survey. Relative risks (RR) were obtained from three published meta-analyses. Pe and RR estimates were used to calculate attributable fractions (AF)., Results: Pe estimates were 26.90, 20.44 and 14.11% for job strain, ERI and job insecurity in Europe, and significant differences were observed between countries. The job strain and ERI AFs for cardiovascular diseases were, respectively, 4.46% (significantly different from zero for Europe and all countries, but without any differences between countries) and 18.21% (not significantly different from zero for Europe and without differences between countries). The significant job strain and job insecurity AFs for mental disorders were 18.16 and 4.53% in Europe, without any significant difference between countries. The significant ERI AF for mental disorders was 14.81%, and significant differences were found between countries; the 3 highest AFs were observed in Greece, Slovenia and Turkey, and the 3 lowest in Bulgaria, Ireland and Latvia., Conclusion: This study is the first one to provide fractions of cardiovascular diseases and mental disorders attributable to three psychosocial work factors for the whole Europe and to explore the differences between 31 countries. These results may be useful to guide European and national prevention policies as well as to evaluate the economic costs of diseases attributable to these exposures.

Background: Studies exploring a wide range of psychosocial work factors separately and together in association with long sickness absence are still lacking., Objectives: The objective of this study was to explore the associations between psychosocial work factors measured following a comprehensive instrument (Copenhagen psychosocial questionnaire, COPSOQ) and long sickness absence (> 7 days/year) in European employees of 34 countries. An additional objective was to study the differences in these associations according to gender and countries., Methods: The study population consisted of 16 120 male and 16 588 female employees from the 2010 European working conditions survey. Twenty-five psychosocial work factors were explored. Statistical analysis was performed using multilevel logistic regression models and interaction testing., Results: When studied together in the same model, factors related to job demands (quantitative demands and demands for hiding emotions), possibilities for development, social relationships (role conflicts, quality of leadership, social support, and sense of community), workplace violence (physical violence, bullying, and discrimination), shift work, and job promotion were associated with long sickness absence. Almost no difference was observed according to gender and country., Conclusions: Comprehensive prevention policies oriented to psychosocial work factors may be useful to prevent long sickness absence at European level.

Objective: The aim was to assess the changes in psychosocial work factors among European employees between 2005 and 2010., Methods: The study samples came from the European Working Conditions Survey, involving 23,580 and 32,516 employees in 2005 and 2010, respectively, from 30 European countries. The psychosocial work factors studied were based on job strain and effort-reward imbalance models, and more recent factors. Multilevel linear and logistic regression models were used. Differences according to occupations and countries were tested., Results: Results were mixed with improvement for some factors and decline for other factors. Some countries and occupations were more likely to be affected by negative changes, especially low-skilled employees., Conclusion: Prevention policies at the workplace should take into account that the degradation of some psychosocial work factors may be sharper for some countries and occupations.

Background: The studies on the associations between psychosocial work factors and sickness absence have rarely included a large number of factors and European data. The objective was to examine the associations between a large set of psychosocial work factors following well-known and emergent concepts and sickness absence in Europe., Methods: The study population consisted of 14,881 male and 14,799 female workers in 31 countries from the 2005 European Working Conditions Survey. Psychosocial work factors included the following: decision latitude, psychological demands, social support, physical violence, sexual harassment, discrimination, bullying, long working hours, shift and night work, job insecurity, job promotion and work-life imbalance. Covariates were as follows: age, occupation, economic activity, employee/self-employed status and physical, chemical, biological and biomechanical exposures. Statistical analysis was performed using multilevel negative binomial hurdle models to study the occurrence and duration of sickness absence., Results: In the models, including all psychosocial work factors together and adjustment for covariates, high psychological demands, discrimination, bullying, low-job promotion and work-life imbalance for both genders and physical violence for women were observed as risk factors of the occurrence of sickness absence. Bullying and shift work increased the duration of absence among women. Bullying had the strongest association with sickness absence., Conclusion: Various psychosocial work factors were found to be associated with sickness absence. A less conservative analysis exploring each factor separately provided a still higher number of risk factors. Preventive measures should take psychosocial work environment more comprehensively into account to reduce sickness absence and improve health at work at European level.

Aims: The aim of this study was to examine educational differences in self-reported health (SRH) among men and women in Europe., Methods: The study was based on a sample of 15,362 men and 20,272 women from the nationally representative European Quality of Life Survey conducted in 31 European countries in 2007. SRH was measured using a single item and dichotomised into good (very good, good) and poor (fair, bad, very bad) health. Education was classified into seven categories according to the International Standard Classification of Education. Relative index of inequality, multilevel logistic regression analyses, and interaction tests were conducted., Results: Educational differences in SRH were found in almost all countries. After adjustment for covariates, no differences were found in Austria, Denmark, or the Netherlands. The highest differences were observed for both genders in Ireland and Macedonia. Women had significant larger educational differences in SRH than men in Portugal but significant lower differences in Czech Republic and Lithuania., Conclusions: The study underlined that the magnitude of educational differences in SRH varied according to gender and country.

Background: Although psychosocial work factors are recognized as major occupational risk factors, little information is available regarding the prevalence of exposure to these factors and the differences in exposure between countries., Aims: To explore the differences in various psychosocial work exposures between 31 European countries., Methods: The study was based on a sample of 14,881 male and 14,799 female workers from the 2005 European Working Conditions Survey. Eighteen psychosocial work factors were studied: low decision latitude (skill discretion and decision authority), high psychological demands, job strain, low social support, iso-strain, physical violence, sexual harassment, bullying, discrimination, work-family imbalance, long working hours, high effort, job insecurity, low job promotion, low reward and effort-reward imbalance. Covariates were age, number of workers in household, occupation, economic activity, self-employed/employee, public/private sector and part/full time work. Statistical analysis was performed using multilevel logistic regression analysis., Results: Significant differences in all psychosocial work factors were observed between countries. The rank of the countries varied according to the exposure considered. However, some countries, especially Denmark, Netherlands and Norway, displayed a significantly lower prevalence of exposure to four factors or more, while some Southern and Eastern countries, especially Czech Republic, Greece, Lithuania and Turkey, had a higher prevalence., Conclusions: Differences in psychosocial work exposures were found between countries. This study is the first to compare a large set of psychosocial work exposures between 31 European countries. These findings may be useful to guide prevention policies at European level.