Work, Health and Well-being: an interdisciplinary approach to managing health in the workplace

In general, work is seen as good for health and well-being and an aid to maintaining independence over the life course. Over the last few years more attention has been paid towards how people can continue to work from middle to old age. With increasing pension age and increasing costs in state benefits, government and health providers have been looking into various means to extend working life. We know that how work is organised and strategies that employers can implement (e.g. allow flexible working) are important for reducing workers stress and maintaining people in the workplace. Building on this, this proposal plans to build a team comprising experts from different backgrounds, organisations with an interest in health and work and middle and older aged adults from the general population, to explore the management of health conditions, and the role that specific health conditions play influencing changes in work in the middle and later stages of working life. To begin with, we will focus on the two most common reasons for work loss: (i) mental health/stress and (ii) musculoskeletal conditions (back pain and arthritis). Much attention has been given to mental health and stress but it is unclear how stress interacts with other health conditions in leading to work loss. Musculoskeletal conditions occur more with age and may become an even more common reason for work loss in future years as people are expected to work until they are older.
The aims of the network are to (i) identify ways to maintain work participation throughout life and (ii) explore the basis for further studies and projects to improve the ability of adults to continue working. The output from the networks? activities will lead to presentations to policy-making groups to contribute to practice development and the design of policies and practices that can improve the well-being of older workers. The Network will also develop a multi-disciplinary research proposal aimed at assisting interventions to main work participation and healthy ageing.

National policies directed at extending working life have received attention from a range of stakeholders, including clinicians and policymakers. The economic impact of work loss on society is substantial: 157 million working days were lost to sickness in 2006 and the estimated cost to society in the UK is #7 billion. Together with the economic benefits, work participation is seen to assist healthy ageing and continued independence. Much research has been undertaken examining general issues around work and employment. Building on this research, the proposed project aims to develop an interdisciplinary network focusing upon health transitions in employment. The project will have a particular focus on the management of two of the main reasons for work loss (stress and musculoskeletal conditions) occurring during the middle and later phases of working life. The network will (i) identify potential interventions and strategies to maintain work participation through the life-course with particular attention to mental health and musculoskeletal conditions, and (ii) explore the basis for a larger project to evaluate management strategies in relation to these conditions. The particular strength of the proposal is the bringing together of a range of interests in health factors behind work transitions, a commitment to combine disciplines in novel ways, and the concern to develop new interventions to assist work participation.
The network combines expertise from three research centres: health service epidemiology and musculoskeletal conditions (Arthritis Research Campaign National Primary Care Centre, Keele University), social gerontology and sociology (Centre for Social Gerontology, Keele University), social policy, work and employment, including stress in the workplace (University of Kent). In addition, the network will also include a number of other experts in the field, user groups (e.g. Research User Groups from Keele University, The Age and Employment Network) and government organisations (Kent County Council, Department of Work and Pensions, Health and Safety Executive). Particular strengths of this proposal are the focus of all experts on work transitions, a commitment to work in an integrated way and to build research capacity with potential to direct further research on examining the success of proposed interventions to maintain work participation and healthy ageing. The output from the networks? activities will lead to presentation of findings at conferences, workshops to relevant policy-making groups, and the development of a major research proposal focused on interventions in the workplace to assist healthy ageing.