The work-relatedness of disease: workers' own assessment.

In the routine compilation of statistics on the relation between occupation and ill-health it is usually possible to demonstrate links to certain physically demanding occupations. However, studies of the causal links between work and iii-health present problems. Besides the difficulties that often occur in collecting information on present and previous occupations, exposure periods, latency, duration, etc, the analysis and interpretations themselves are complicated. The aim of this paper is to study the interviewees' own views on whether or not any ill-health they may suffer could be caused by any particular job they may hold or have held in the past. Does one get the same picture of the relationship between occupation and ill-health as when routinely compiling statistics? The study population comprised 12,664 men and 12,942 women between 25 and 75 years of age. For all respondents, detailed occupational histories were recorded The results indicated that health problems are more common among persons who have or have had physically demanding work. On the other hand, in certain heavy jobs with high numbers of persons reporting long-term illnesses it is rare for individuals to blame their health problems on working conditions. Conversely, other occupations have relatively low numbers of persons with long-term illnesses, yet high proportions of these attribute their health problems to their work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]