Disability retirement among former employees at the construction of the Great Belt Link.
OBJECTIVE
To investigate incidences of disability retirement among men who had been employed at the construction of a large traffic link in Denmark, which involved long working hours and long distances between home and work place.


METHODS
Men aged 20-54 years at baseline who had been engaged in the construction of the Great Belt Link (n = 5882) were followed-up for disability retirements from 1996 to 2000. Age-standardized incidence ratios (SIR) were calculated and compared with those of other construction workers (n = 117,157). All economically active men in Denmark were used as the standard population.


RESULTS
The SIRs for the two groups were 2.29 (95% confidence intervals (CI): 1.95-2.67) and 0.98 (95% CI: 0.93-1.03), respectively.


CONCLUSIONS
The Great Belt construction workers had an elevated risk for disability retirement compared with other construction workers and with economically active men in general.
Hannerz
H
H
Department of Epidemiology and Surveillance, National Institute of Occupational Health, Lersø Parkallé 105, DK-2100 Copenhagen Ø, Denmark. hh@ami.dk
Spangenberg
S
S
Tüchsen
F
F
Albertsen
K
K
D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D003718:Denmark / Q000453:epidemiology; D004185:Disability Evaluation; D006233:Persons with Disabilities / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D007221:Industry; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009784:Occupational Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology*; D012179:Retirement / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*