Psychosocial work environment and disability pension among young workers with psychiatric diagnoses

Abstract Background With the growing number of children and adolescents diagnosed with psychiatric conditions, the number of young workers with a psychiatric diagnosis is expected to rise. From both public health and clinical perspectives, gaining more knowledge about these individuals is important, as they may require special considerations regarding working conditions to ensure successful and sustainable workforce entry. Methods We used data from the Danish Worklife Course Cohort (DaWCo), a register-based cohort of all young workers (aged 15-30) entering the Danish labour market between 1995 and 2018 (1.5 million individuals). We identified the prevalence of psychiatric diagnoses before age 40 in a national in- and outpatient hospital admissions registry. Using Poisson regression, we analyzed the association between psychosocial work factors, measured by job exposure matrices, and the risk of disability pension before age 45. Results A total of 245,111 (16.0%) young workers were diagnosed with a psychiatric condition before age 40. The three most prevalent diagnostic groups were stress and adjustment disorders (F43, 5.0%), alcohol-related disorders (F10, 3.3%), and depressive episode (F32, 2.7%). Longitudinal analyses suggested a higher risk of disability pension with psychiatric diagnoses for those working in jobs with low influence compared to those working in jobs with high influence. No clear associations were found for other work environment factors (quantitative and emotional demands, job strain, and workplace violence). Conclusions A substantial proportion of young adults entering the labour market have or develop a psychiatric diagnosis within their early years of labor market participation. Among workers with psychiatric diagnoses, low influence at work emerged as a risk factor for early labour market exit. More knowledge about modifiable factors of sustainable workforce entry for these individuals is crucial to support their future labor market participation.