Ford, KJ;
Batty, GD;
Leist, AK;
(2020)
Examining gender differentials in the association of low control work with cognitive performance in older workers.
European Journal of Public Health
10.1093/eurpub/ckaa173.
(In press).
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Abstract
BACKGROUND: Limited workplace control, an important dimension of job strain, can reduce occupational opportunities for problem solving and learning. Women may have fewer professional resources to mitigate effects of low control, while conversely, gender-role norms may moderate the influence of occupational psychosocial risk factors. We therefore examined whether the links between control and cognitive function were similarly gendered. METHODS: This observational, longitudinal study included respondents of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe who were aged 50-64 years at entry, employed and provided at least two measurements of control and cognition (n = 6697). Relationships between control and cognition, quantified with standardized scores from verbal fluency, immediate and delayed word recall tests, were explored using linear fixed-effect and random-effect models with gender interactions. RESULTS: Consistent trends of improved verbal fluency performance with high control were evident across analyses, equal to producing around three-quarters of a word more under high control conditions, with an effect size ∼0.1 SD units (fully adjusted models, range 0.077-0.104 SD), although associations with recall tests were inconsistent. We did not find evidence of clear gender differences in control-cognition relationships for any of the cognitive domains. CONCLUSIONS: The cognitive health of older European workers may benefit from improved workplace control irrespective of gender. Possible sources of bias that could explain the lack of gender differences are discussed, particularly gender differences in labour force participation, response behaviour in job control ratings and implications of gender-role norms on the importance of occupational risk factors.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Examining gender differentials in the association of low control work with cognitive performance in older workers. |
| Location: | England |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1093/eurpub/ckaa173 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1093/eurpub/ckaa173 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | © The Author(s) 2020. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Public Health Association. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. For commercial re-use, please contact journals.permissions@oup.com |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute of Epidemiology and Health UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute of Epidemiology and Health > Epidemiology and Public Health |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10111181 |
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