title: Associations of work-related factors and work engagement with mental and physical health: a 1-year follow-up study among older workers.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The goals of this study were to determine whether, among older employees, unfavourable physical and psychosocial work-related factors were associated with poorer mental and physical health and whether high work engagement buffered the associations between unfavourable work-related factors and poorer health.
  
  
  METHODS
  A 1-year longitudinal study with employed persons aged 45-64 was conducted within the Study on Transitions in Employment, Ability and Motivation (n = 8,837). Using an online questionnaire, work-related factors (physical: physical load; psychosocial: psychological job demands, autonomy, and support) and work engagement were measured at baseline and health at baseline and 1-year follow-up. General linear models were used to assess associations of work-related factors and work engagement with health. Tests of interaction terms assessed whether work engagement buffered the work-related factor-health associations.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Unfavourable psychosocial work-related factors at baseline were associated with poorer mental health at follow-up. Higher physical load, higher psychological job demands, and lower autonomy at baseline were associated with poorer physical health at follow-up. Higher work engagement at baseline was related to better physical and especially better mental health during the 1-year follow-up. Work engagement had a small effect on the associations between work-related factors and health.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Among older employees, especially the promotion of a high work engagement and, to a lesser extent, favourable work-related factors can be beneficial for mental health in particular.
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health, Erasmus MC, University Medical Center, PO Box 2040, 3000 CA, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Fenna R M
authors.initials: FR
authors.lastname: Leijten
authors.forename: Swenne G
authors.initials: SG
authors.lastname: van den Heuvel
authors.forename: Allard J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: van der Beek
authors.forename: Jan Fekke
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Ybema
authors.forename: Suzan J W
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Robroek
authors.forename: Alex
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Burdorf
mesh_terms: D004651:Employment / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D007588:Job Satisfaction; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008603:Mental Health / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008875:Middle Aged; D009426:Netherlands; D011584:Psychology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D016526:Workload / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data