An Occupational Job Strain Index based on five Norwegian nationwide Surveys of Living Conditions on work environment

The Nordic countries have a rich history of using high-quality register data for research purposes. However, these data often lack crucial information related to working conditions, which is vital for studying social inequalities in health and social epidemiology. To address this gap, job exposure matrices (JEMs) have been developed based on job titles to provide information on various exposures and stressors. Although JEMs offer advantages in enriching register data, they also pose challenges such as misclassification.

Building upon the work of Hanvold et al., who constructed a JEM for mechanical job exposures in Norway using data from the Survey of Living Conditions in 2006 and 2009, this study expands upon their efforts by extending and improving the job exposure matrix. Three additional surveys from 2013, 2016, and 2019 were included, requiring the creation of a correspondence table between occupational codes across the surveys. This expansion resulted in a larger dataset, enhancing the statistical precision of estimates.

Furthermore, the JEM was applied to Norwegian register data, and the predictive validity of the JEM was examined using disability benefits, mortality, and the number of long-term sick absence periods as health outcomes. Concurrent validity was assessed by considering lower back pain and long-term sick leave. In contrast to previous research focusing on specific exposures and diagnoses, this study adopts a broader approach by developing an Occupational Mechanical Job Exposure Index to summarize mechanical job exposures. The ultimate goal is to use this index for future analyses of Norwegian register data, drawing upon traditions in social policy, health inequality research, and labor market analysis

The Occupational Job Strain Index is documentet and validated in:
Le, G.H., Hermansen, Å. & Dahl, E. Constructing and validating an occupational job strain index based on five Norwegian nationwide surveys of living conditions on work environment. BMC Public Health 23, 50 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-022-14957-1

The script that documents how the exposures were calculated and the JEM constructed, as well as a dataset including the completed job exposure matrix based on all five surveys, is hereby made accessible for other researcher who want to use the JEM and the Occupational Job Strain Index in their research.

License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0).

In all publications of results based on the information, Statistics Norway (SSB) must be cited as the data source.