Approved research

Identification and evaluation of risk factors in the working environment for poor health outcomes

Lay summary

This project aims to investigate the association of working conditions such as shiftwork and physical environment with poor health outcomes such as cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, mental ill health and cancer. Furthermore, we intend to investigate the modulating effect of genetic variation on this relationship. We hypothesize that adverse working environment will have increased risk for poor health outcomes and modulated by a person's genetic background. This may reveal a possible mechanism that is multifactorial in etiology, suggesting that a multi-domain intervention will be needed to achieve maximum effects for the prevention of poor health outcomes. This project will provide insights on the influence of adverse working environment (i.e. shift work and physical environment) on poor health outcomes in a broad spectrum of occupations, taking into account gender, age differences, and genetic variation. This could contribute to public health policies in disease prevention as well as help professionals in health-related decisions. Statistical models will be utilized to analyze the associations between working conditions and poor health outcomes while controlling for demographics such as age, gender, and educational attainment, as well as comorbidities. Modifying effects of genetic variation on poor health outcome will be assessed by incorporating it through generalized linear models. Novel genetic variants will be derived from two-thirds of the cohort and validated in the remaining third. To maximize power, the full cohort will be included in the project.