Cognitive function and pre-retirement psychosocial work characteristics

Given the centrality of work and employment for material and psychosocial well-being in adult life it is not surprising to learn that adverse working conditions can contribute to significant reductions in health and well-being. However, what is striking is the broad range of health outcomes affected by poor quality of work and employment. In addition to self-reported health and a variety of symptoms, this range includes distinct stress-related physical and mental disorders and, as more recently disclosed, cognitive impairment and risk of dementia. Although the paper of Sabbath et al1 published in this issue is not the first to demonstrate such an association it extends the current state of knowledge in three important ways.

First, by building on one of the leading theoretical models of psychosocial stress at work, demand-control, it links data on the model's single components and its different constellations, as assessed in late midlife, to postretirement...

http://ift.tt/2a4S1ww