@Article{Ervasti2019, author = "Ervasti, Jenni and Airaksinen, Jaakko and Pentti, Jaana and Vahtera, Jussi and Suominen, Sakari and Virtanen, Marianna and Kivimäki, Mika", title = "Does increasing physical activity reduce the excess risk of work disability among overweight individuals?", journal = "Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment & Health", year = "2019", month = "Jul", day = "45", number = "4", pages = "376--385", keywords = "counterfactual analysis; excess risk; mediation; normal weight; obesity; overweight; physical activity; sickness absence; weight; work disability", abstract = "'
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OBJECTIVES ': 'We examined the extent to which an increase in physical activity would reduce the excess risk of work disability among overweight and obese people (body mass index ≥ 25kg/m2).
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METHODS ': 'We used counterfactual modelling approaches to analyze longitudinal data from two Finnish prospective cohort studies (total N=38 744). Weight, height and physical activity were obtained from surveys and assessed twice and linked to electronic records of two indicators of long-term work disability (≥90-day sickness absence and disability pension) for a 7-year follow-up after the latter survey. The models were adjusted for age, sex, socioeconomic status, smoking, and alcohol consumption.
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RESULTS ': 'The confounder-adjusted hazard ratio (HR) of long-term sickness absence for overweight compared to normal-weight participants was 1.43 [95% confidence interval (CI) 1.35–1.53]. An increase in physical activity among overweight compared to normal-weight individuals was estimated to reduce this HR to 1.40 (95% CI 1.31–1.48). In pseudo-trial analysis including only the persistently overweight, initially physically inactive participants, the HR for long-term sickness absence was 0.82 (95% CI 0.70–0.94) for individuals with increased physical activity compared to those who remained physically inactive. The results for disability pension as an outcome were similar.
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CONCLUSIONS ': 'These findings suggest that the excess risk of work disability among overweight individuals would drop by 3–4% if they increased their average physical activity to the average level of normal-weight people. However, overweight individuals who are physically inactive would reduce their risk of work disability by about 20% by becoming physically active.
", issn = "0355-3140", doi = "10.5271/sjweh.3799", url = "https://www.sjweh.fi/show_abstract.php?abstract_id=3799", url = "https://doi.org/10.5271/sjweh.3799" }