Our doctoral researcher, Saila Kyrönlahti, presented her third dissertation article in the 33rd ICOH International Congress on Occupational Health which took place on February 6-10, 2022.
The topic of her article was the longitudinal profiles of occupational physical activity (OPA) from midlife to retirement and their association with old age mobility and disability.
In the 10-minute presentation, she explained that she found three OPA profiles among the participants: low, moderate, and high, and for each profile, the progression over time was fairly stable. In both Finnish and American cohorts, the high and moderate OPA profiles were associated with higher odds of having mobility limitations at old age. However, no associations were observed between OPA profiles and the other outcome, which was disability in daily living activities (ADL).
Saila Kyrönlahti’s preliminary results are of high relevance to the current situation of the world where population is aging faster than ever. There are many factors that can influence the process of healthy ageing, one of which comes from an individual’s lifetime exposure to his/her working conditions. Therefore, health interventions should focus on promoting healthy levels of OPA during working life as they likely have long-term positive impacts on healthy aging.
“The work is very much in the process”, Saila says, despite having presented her main findings. “Further analyses are needed to see if selective mortality explains this finding”, she adds, referring to the lack of association between OPA profiles and disability in ADL.
Two cohorts which are included in the Individual Participant Data Meta-Analysis (IPD-MAD) project were used in her study, they were FLAME (Finnish Longitudinal Study of Aging Municipal Employees) and HRS (Health and Retirement Study). The former, FLAME, is a follow-up study on Finnish municipal workers which was conducted at the Institute of Occupational Health from 1981 to 2009, whereas the latter, HRS, is a longitudinal study of a representative sample of Americans aged 50 years old and beyond. Moreover, Saila identified the distinct profiles of OPA among the participants using latent class curve analysis, while to examine the association between each OPA profiles and mobility and disability, a logistic regression model was used.
This year’s ICOH International Congress, which was supposed to be held in Melbourne, Australia, was carried out in a digital format due to the pandemic with the theme “Sharing solutions in occupational health through and beyond the pandemic”. Despite the change in the format of the congress, it successfully attracted the participation of more than 1,400 delegates from 98 countries. It has been decided that Marrakesh, Morocco will be the venue of the 34th International Congress. Our researchers are very much looking forward to participating in this triennial International Congress again in 2024!
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