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Gesundheitsindikatoren in einer älter werdenden Erwerbsbevölkerung
Eine Untersuchung auf Basis der BIBB/BAuA-Befragung des Jahres 2006

Introduction: Demographic changes emphasise the importance of healthy aging during the working life. This study, which focuses on associations of age and health in the context of the working life, analyses several health indicators on the basis of the BIBB/ BAuA employment survey 2006. The subjectively assessed health status, the prevalence of reported work-related health impairments, the frequency of their treatment by a doctor or therapist and the number of sick-leave days of employees were analysed by age, gender and occupational status.

Methods: 20,000 economically active persons (51.6 % men, mean age: 41.3 years) were surveyed by telephone with regard to psychosocial and health aspects. In this study, chisquare tests were conducted to investigate whether the subjectively assessed health status, the prevalence of work-related impairments and their treatment by a doctor or therapist differed systematically with regard to age, gender and occupational status. The number of sick-leave days was analysed by age and gender and by gender and professional status in the context of a general linear model.

Results: We observed decreases in all four health indicators with increasing age. This trend did not continue for subjects older than 60 years. Women overall reported a worse general health status, more impairments and their treatment than men, although there was no difference in the number of reported sick-leave days. In the analysis by professional status, workers reported more impairments than persons in the other groups.

Conclusions: General health decreases with increasing age, but this trend did not continue in a linear way from the age of 60. One interpretation for this would be the healthy worker effect. Older persons, women and workers reported more health impairments and thus constitute the main target groups for possible prevention measures.