Associations between work-related stress in late midlife, educational attainment, and serious health problems in old age: a longitudinal study with over 20 years of follow-up

Table 1 Descriptive statistics

	Number of domains with serious health problems				High education^a(%)
	None	1 domain	2-3 domains^b	Total
Sex (%)
Women	56.4	30.8	12.7	785	48.1
Men	67.4	24.1	8.5	717	55.4
Age
Mean (baseline year)	55.6	56.9	58.6	56.3	55.9
Median	57.0	57.0	59.0	57.0	57.0
Mean (follow-up year)	80.6	81.1	81.7	80.9	80.4
Median	80.0	81.0	81.0	80.0	80.0
Job demands (%)
Low demands	58.4	31.2	10.4	452	38.9
Medium demands	64.1	25.1	10.8	554	47.7
High demands	61.9	27.2	10.9	1496	67.8
Job control (%)
Low control	52.1	33.1	14.8	263	30.2
Medium low control	59.3	28.3	12.4	605	29.5
Medium high control	63.6	27.0	9.4	415	74.9
High control	75.8	20.6	3.7	219	95.1
High job strain ^c (%)	57.3	29.1	13.6	546	34.0
Level of education (%)
Low	54.9	31.6	13.5	725
High	68.0	23.9	8.1	777 (51.7%)	51.7
TOTAL n ^d (%)	926 (61.7)	415 (27.6)	161 (10.7)	1502

^aLevel of education was dichotomized as low education (compulsory; 6-8 years of education for most of the study participants) and high education (vocational, upper secondary, and university). ^bThose with serious problems in two or three health domains were classified as having complex health problems. ^cJob strain: Control was dichotomized into low and medium low vs. high and medium high. High strain = high demands and low control. ^dIndicates total number of observations.

ISSN: 1471-2458