Emotional demands at work and risk of long-term sickness absence in 1·5 million employees in Denmark : a prospective cohort study on effect modifiers

Publisher Copyright: © 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an Open Access article under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licenseBackground: High emotional demands at work can affect employees’ health and there is a need to understand whether such an association might be modified by other working conditions. We aimed to examine emotional demands at work as a risk factor for long-term sickness absence and analyse whether influence, possibilities for development, role conflicts, and physical demands at work might modify this risk. Methods: We did a nationwide, population-based, prospective cohort study in Denmark and included employed individuals who were residing in Denmark in 2000, aged 30–59 years, who had complete data on age, sex, and migration background, with information on emotional demands and possible effect modifiers from job exposure matrices, and covariates and outcome (sickness absence) from population registers. Individuals with long-term sickness absence (≥6 weeks of consecutive sickness absence) between Jan 1, 1998, and Dec 31, 2000, and self-employed individuals were excluded. We assessed long-term sickness absence during a 10-year period from Jan 1, 2001, to Dec 31, 2010. Using Cox regression, we estimated hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% CIs and tested interaction as departure from additivity, estimating relative excess risk due to interaction (RERI). Multivariable adjusted models included sex, age, cohabitation, migration background, and income. Findings: 1 521 352 employed individuals were included and contributed data between Jan 1, 2000, and Dec 31, 2010. During 11 919 021 person-years (mean follow-up 7·8 years), we identified 480 685 new cases of long-term sickness absence. High emotional demands were associated with increased risk of long-term sickness absence compared with low emotional demands, after adjusting for age, sex, cohabitation, migration background, income, and the four possible effect modifiers (adjusted HR 1·55 [95% CI 1·53–1·56]). The association between high emotional demands and risk of long-term sickness absence was stronger in a synergistic way when individuals were also exposed to low possibilities for development (RERI 0·35 [95% CI 0·22–0·47]; 28·9 additional cases per 1000 person-years) and high role conflicts (0·13 [0·11–0·15]; 22·0 additional cases per 1000 person-years). No synergy was observed for influence and physical demands at work. Interpretation: People in occupations with high emotional demands were at increased risk of long-term sickness absence. Our findings on synergistic interactions suggest that, in emotionally demanding occupations, increasing possibilities for development and reducing work-related role conflicts might reduce long-term sickness absence. Further interventional studies are needed to confirm or refute this hypothesis. Funding: Danish Work Environment Research Fund, NordForsk.Peer reviewe

Amyloid-β and α-Synuclein Decrease the Level of Metal-Catalyzed Reactive Oxygen Species by Radical Scavenging and Redox Silencing.

The formation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) is linked to the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative diseases. Here we have investigated the effect of soluble and aggregated amyloid-β (Aβ) and α-synuclein (αS), associated with Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases, respectively, on the Cu(2+)-catalyzed formation of ROS in vitro in the presence of a biological reductant. We find that the levels of ROS, and the rate by which ROS is generated, are significantly reduced when Cu(2+) is bound to Aβ or αS, particularly when they are in their oligomeric or fibrillar forms. This effect is attributed to a combination of radical scavenging and redox silencing mechanisms. Our findings suggest that the increase in ROS associated with the accumulation of aggregated Aβ or αS does not result from a particularly ROS-active form of these peptides, but rather from either a local increase of Cu(2+) and other ROS-active metal ions in the aggregates or as a downstream consequence of the formation of the pathological amyloid structures.This work was supported by the Villum Foundation (J.T.P., L.H.), the Lundbeck Foundation (J.T.P., K.T.), the Agency for Science, Technology and Research, Singapore (S.W.C.), The Wellcome Trust (C.M.D.) and the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness through the Ramon y Cajal ́ program (N.C.).This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from the American Chemical Society via http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/jacs.5b1357

Isomorphs in model molecular liquids

Isomorphs are curves in the phase diagram along which a number of static and dynamic quantities are invariant in reduced units. A liquid has good isomorphs if and only if it is strongly correlating, i.e., the equilibrium virial/potential energy fluctuations are more than 90% correlated in the NVT ensemble. This paper generalizes isomorphs to liquids composed of rigid molecules and study the isomorphs of two systems of small rigid molecules, the asymmetric dumbbell model and the Lewis-Wahnstrom OTP model. In particular, for both systems we find that the isochoric heat capacity, the excess entropy, the reduced molecular center-of-mass self part of the intermediate scattering function, the reduced molecular center-of-mass radial distribution function to a good approximation are invariant along an isomorph. In agreement with theory, we also find that an instantaneous change of temperature and density from an equilibrated state point to another isomorphic state point leads to no relaxation. The isomorphs of the Lewis-Wahnstrom OTP model were found to be more approximative than those of the asymmetric dumbbell model, which is consistent with the OTP model being less strongly correlating. For both models we find "master isomorphs", i.e., isomorphs have identical shape in the virial/potential energy phase diagram.Comment: 20 page

Feasibility of single-order parameter description of equilibrium viscous liquid dynamics

Molecular dynamics results for the dynamic Prigogine-Defay ratio are presented for two glass-forming liquids, thus evaluating the experimentally relevant quantity for testing whether metastable-equilibrium liquid dynamics to a good approximation are described by a single parameter. For the Kob-Andersen binary Lennard-Jones mixture as well as for an asymmetric dumbbell model liquid a single-parameter description works quite well. This is confirmed by time-domain results where it is found that energy and pressure fluctuations are strongly correlated on the alpha-time scale in the NVT ensemble; in the NpT ensemble energy and volume fluctuations similarly correlate strongly.Comment: Phys. Rev. E, in pres

Work stress and loss of years lived without chronic disease : an 18-year follow-up of 1.5 million employees in Denmark

We aimed to examine the association between exposure to work stress and chronic disease incidence and loss of chronic disease-free life years in the Danish workforce. The study population included 1,592,491 employees, aged 30-59 in 2000 and without prevalent chronic diseases. We assessed work stress as the combination of job strain and effort-reward imbalance using job exposure matrices. We used Cox regressions to estimate risk of incident hospital-diagnoses or death of chronic diseases (i.e., type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease, stroke, cancer, asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, heart failure, and dementia) during 18 years of follow-up and calculated corresponding chronic disease-free life expectancy from age 30 to age 75. Individuals working in occupations with high prevalence of work stress had a higher risk of incident chronic disease compared to those in occupations with low prevalence of work stress (women: HR 1.04 (95% CI 1.02-1.05), men: HR 1.12 (95% CI 1.11-1.14)). The corresponding loss in chronic disease-free life expectancy was 0.25 (95% CI - 0.10 to 0.60) and 0.84 (95% CI 0.56-1.11) years in women and men, respectively. Additional adjustment for health behaviours attenuated these associations among men. We conclude that men working in high-stress occupations have a small loss of years lived without chronic disease compared to men working in low-stress occupations. This finding appeared to be partially attributable to harmful health behaviours. In women, high work stress indicated a very small and statistically non-significant loss of years lived without chronic disease.Peer reviewe

Seasonality of ventricular fibrillation at first myocardial infarction and association with viral exposure

AIMS:To investigate seasonality and association of increased enterovirus and influenza activity in the community with ventricular fibrillation (VF) risk during first ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI). METHODS:This study comprised all consecutive patients with first STEMI (n = 4,659; aged 18-80 years) admitted to the invasive catheterization laboratory between 2010-2016, at Copenhagen University Hospital, Rigshospitalet, covering eastern Denmark (2.6 million inhabitants, 45% of the Danish population). Hospital admission, prescription, and vital status data were assessed using Danish nationwide registries. We utilized monthly/weekly surveillance data for enterovirus and influenza from the Danish National Microbiology Database (2010-2016) that receives copies of laboratory tests from all Danish departments of clinical microbiology. RESULTS:Of the 4,659 consecutively enrolled STEMI patients, 581 (12%) had VF before primary percutaneous coronary intervention. In a subset (n = 807), we found that VF patients experienced more generalized fatigue and flu-like symptoms within 7 days before STEMI compared with the patients without VF (OR 3.39, 95% CI 1.76-6.54). During the study period, 2,704 individuals were diagnosed with enterovirus and 19,742 with influenza. No significant association between enterovirus and VF (OR 1.00, 95% CI 0.99-1.02), influenza and VF (OR 1.00, 95% CI 1.00-1.00), or week number and VF (p-value 0.94 for enterovirus and 0.89 for influenza) was found. CONCLUSION:We found no clear seasonality of VF during first STEMI. Even though VF patients had experienced more generalized fatigue and flu-like symptoms within 7 days before STEMI compared with patients without VF, no relationship was found between enterovirus or influenza exposure and occurrence of VF

The benefits of collaboration:The Nordic Arthroplasty Register Association

□ The Nordic Arthroplasty Register Association (NARA) was established in 2007 by arthroplasty register representatives from Sweden, Norway and Denmark with the overall aim to improve the quality of research and thereby enhance the possibility for quality improvement with arthroplasty surgery. Finland joined the NARA collaboration in 2010. □ NARA minimal hip, knee and shoulder datasets were created with variables that all countries can deliver. They are dynamic datasets, currently with 25 variables for hip arthroplasty, 20 for knee arthroplasty and 20 for shoulder arthroplasty. □ NARA has published statistical guidelines for the analysis of arthroplasty register data. The association is continuously working on the improvement of statistical methods and the application of new ones. □ There are 31 published peer-reviewed papers based on the NARA databases and 20 ongoing projects in different phases. Several NARA publications have significantly affected clinical practice. For example, metal-on-metal total hip arthroplasty and resurfacing arthroplasty have been abandoned due to increased revision risk based on i.a. NARA reports. Further, the use of uncemented total hip arthroplasty in elderly patients has decreased significantly, especially in Finland, based on the NARA data. □ The NARA collaboration has been successful because the countries were able to agree on a common dataset and variable definitions. The collaboration was also successful because the group was able to initiate a number of research projects and provide answers to clinically relevant questions. A number of specific goals, set up in 2007, have been achieved and new one has emerged in the process

Cu(II) mediates kinetically distinct, non-amyloidogenic aggregation of amyloid-β peptides

Cu(II) ions are implicated in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer disease by influencing the aggregation of the amyloid-β (Aβ) peptide. Elucidating the underlying Cu(II)-induced Aβ aggregation is paramount for understanding the role of Cu(II) in the pathology of Alzheimer disease. The aim of this study was to characterize the qualitative and quantitative influence of Cu(II) on the extracellular aggregation mechanism and aggregate morphology of Aβ(1–40) using spectroscopic, microelectrophoretic, mass spectrometric, and ultrastructural techniques. We found that the Cu(II):Aβ ratio in solution has a major influence on (i) the aggregation kinetics/mechanism of Aβ, because three different kinetic scenarios were observed depending on the Cu(II):Aβ ratio, (ii) the metal:peptide stoichiometry in the aggregates, which increased to 1.4 at supra-equimolar Cu(II):Aβ ratio; and (iii) the morphology of the aggregates, which shifted from fibrillar to non-fibrillar at increasing Cu(II):Aβ ratios. We observed dynamic morphological changes of the aggregates, and that the formation of spherical aggregates appeared to be a common morphological end point independent on the Cu(II) concentration. Experiments with Aβ(1–42) were compatible with the conclusions for Aβ(1–40) even though the low solubility of Aβ(1–42) precluded examination under the same conditions as for the Aβ(1–40). Experiments with Aβ(1–16) and Aβ(1–28) showed that other parts than the Cu(II)-binding His residues were important for Cu(II)-induced Aβ aggregation. Based on this study we propose three mechanistic models for the Cu(II)-induced aggregation of Aβ(1–40) depending on the Cu(II):Aβ ratio, and identify key reaction steps that may be feasible targets for preventing Cu(II)-associated aggregation or toxicity in Alzheimer disease

Overview of progress in European medium sized tokamaks towards an integrated plasma-edge/wall solution

Integrating the plasma core performance with an edge and scrape-off layer (SOL) that leads to tolerable heat and particle loads on the wall is a major challenge. The new European medium size tokamak task force (EU-MST) coordinates research on ASDEX Upgrade (AUG), MAST and TCV. This multi-machine approach within EU-MST, covering a wide parameter range, is instrumental to progress in the field, as ITER and DEMO core/pedestal and SOL parameters are not achievable simultaneously in present day devices. A two prong approach is adopted. On the one hand, scenarios with tolerable transient heat and particle loads, including active edge localised mode (ELM) control are developed. On the other hand, divertor solutions including advanced magnetic configurations are studied. Considerable progress has been made on both approaches, in particular in the fields of: ELM control with resonant magnetic perturbations (RMP), small ELM regimes, detachment onset and control, as well as filamentary scrape-off-layer transport. For example full ELM suppression has now been achieved on AUG at low collisionality with n  =  2 RMP maintaining good confinement ${{H}_{\text{H}\left(98,\text{y}2\right)}}\approx 0.95$ . Advances have been made with respect to detachment onset and control. Studies in advanced divertor configurations (Snowflake, Super-X and X-point target divertor) shed new light on SOL physics. Cross field filamentary transport has been characterised in a wide parameter regime on AUG, MAST and TCV progressing the theoretical and experimental understanding crucial for predicting first wall loads in ITER and DEMO. Conditions in the SOL also play a crucial role for ELM stability and access to small ELM regimes