BackgroundTo enhance nurse retention amidst rising patient care demands and the current nursing shortage, it is essential to understand nurses' views and preferred actions. There are various relevant retention factors at the individual, team, and organizational levels. However, it is not known what priority nurses give to the factors. Understanding this is crucial, as unmet needs, along with rising demand for care and a tight labour market, increase the likelihood that nurses will seek better working conditions elsewhere. This study aims to explore how nurses working in university hospitals across different age and educational categories rank factors that are important for their retention, and to identify their preferred action for retention.MethodsWe performed a cross-sectional study among nurses from two university hospitals, using an online survey. The survey included the ranking of retention factors from most to least important, along with an open-ended question about nurses' preferred action for retention. Data analysis involved descriptive statistics, Kruskal-Wallis tests to examine differences in rankings across age and education groups, and a Direct Content Analysis of open-ended responses.ResultsIn total 483 nurses (12.6%) responded. Nurses identified competitive salaries, career advancement, and a positive team environment as the most important factors for their retention, with significant differences between age and educational groups. Younger and higher-educated nurses prioritized career advancement, while older nurses ranked work-life balance, supportive supervision, and professional autonomy higher. Nurses' responses to the open-ended question about preferred actions spanned all retention factors.ConclusionsHospital nurses' retention priorities differ by age and education. This emphasizes the need for targeted strategies that address the specific priorities of nurses, in alignment with organizational goals and changes. Balancing nurses' priorities, such as competitive salaries and career development, with organizational constraints is a challenge. By integrating nurses' voices and preferences into retention strategies and understanding the underlying dynamics, healthcare leaders can develop flexible strategies that foster sustainable employability, creating a resilient and motivated nursing workforce that enhances patient care outcomes and drives organizational success.

The MiLES intervention is a digital employer-based tool aimed at enhancing return to work (RTW) of employees with cancer through interactive videos, conversation checklists and tips and information. In a previous study, the MiLES intervention proved to be a useful intervention that aligns with employers’ daily practice. The hypothesis is that the MiLES intervention will enhance the employers’ willingness, ability and self-efficacy in providing RTW support, which in turn will enhance the RTW of employees with cancer. This paper describes the design of a randomized controlled trial (RCT), aimed at evaluating the effectiveness, cost-effectiveness and return on investment of the MiLES intervention. Parallel to the RCT, a process evaluation of the delivery of the MiLES intervention in a real-world setting will be conducted. An RCT with a 12-month follow-up period will be conducted involving 140 employer-employee dyads. The employees are diagnosed with cancer (< 2 years earlier), aged 18–67 years, in paid employment with an employer, and currently fully or partly sick-listed (< 2 years). The employer provides RTW support to the included employee. All dyads will either be allocated to the intervention group, of which the employer will get access to the MiLES intervention, or to the control group in which care as usual will be provided. The primary outcome will be successful RTW (encompassing the employee’s perspectives on RTW) at the level of the employee; secondary outcomes will include the following: time to RTW, quality of life and quality of working life, received work-related support, and satisfaction with work-related support. At the level of the employer, the secondary outcomes will include the following: self-efficacy in providing RTW support and satisfaction with the RTW process. All outcomes will be assessed using questionnaires at baseline and at 3, 6 and 12 months of follow-up. Both the cost-effectiveness and the return on investment analysis will be conducted from the employers perspective. For the process evaluation, the UK MRC framework will be used. This RCT will study the effectiveness, cost-effectiveness and return on investment of the MiLES intervention. This knowledge is needed to formulate recommendations regarding the implementation of the MiLES intervention beyond the research setting. ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT06672887. Registered on October 25, 2024.

There is a growing awareness for addressing mental health in the workplace. Although interventions to promote mental health at the organizational-level exist, implementation is a challenge. Middle management can play a crucial role in implementing organisational-level interventions. Also, we know that mental models often need to change first, before enactment of such interventions occur. The aim of this study is therefore to better understand whether and how changes in mental models of middle managers are associated with the implementation activities of an organisational-level intervention to support mental health. Ultimately, this is meant to lead to the enactment of, in this case, a dialogue tool to normalize a conversation between middle manager and employee to enhance mental health. Participatory Action Research was used as a method to design our implementation of a dialogue tool primarily focused on middle management to address mental in health in one SME company with 238 employees. In-depth interviews with 11 (middle) managers at the start of the implementation phase were held. After nine months, 9 out of the same 11 (middle) managers were interviewed again to gain understanding whether and how changes occurred during the implementation. Thematic analysis was applied to the interviews, from inductive and deductive perspective. Focus groups with employees and observations during the implementation activities were used for triangulation purposes. The mental models of the (middle) managers were analyzed based on readiness for change, perceived challenges and perceived opportunities. These mental models were generally positive towards the project, despite the low trust towards the Top Management and the general lack of experience with addressing mental health at the workplace. Nine months later, mental models changed towards more awareness and engagement in addressing mental health. Also, enactment of the dialogue tool by middle management and employees occurred. An association of these changes with, for example, the frequency and pace of implementation activities in which all employees were involved was reported. To implement interventions addressing mental health at the workplace, taking the time and using implementation activities that match the needs of middle management might help to change mental models of (middle) management.

OBJECTIVE: This study investigated whether (i) young adults’ mental health problems change when starting career work, (ii) potential changes in mental health problems differ by psychosocial work quality, and (iii) mental health problems during adolescence moderate potential changes in mental health by psychosocial work quality. METHODS: We used data from the TRracking Adolescents’ Individual Lives Survey (TRAILS) cohort. Follow-up time was 2–4 years. Mental health was measured with the youth and adult self-report scales. Longitudinal fixed-effects regression analyses were applied to estimate within-person changes in mental health of young adults entering career work with good, moderate, or poor psychosocial work quality (N=850) and model adolescent mental health as effect modifier of this change (N=766). RESULTS: When psychosocial job quality of the first career job was ignored, mental health problems did not significantly change among young adults after having entered career work compared with not having career work. Taking psychosocial job quality into account, mental health problems increased among young adults starting career work in poor psychosocial quality compared with not having career work (adjusted mean score increase 0.12, 95% confidence interval 0.03−0.21). No significant changes in mental health problems were found for young adults entering work with moderate-to-good psychosocial work quality. We found no evidence for adolescent mental health problems as moderator. CONCLUSION: Psychosocial work quality potentially plays a role for young workers’ mental health. Improving poor psychosocial work quality of young adults might contribute to a mentally healthier start of one’s working life.

OBJECTIVES:The aims of the study were to evaluate whether the Healthy Working Approach was implemented as planned and to gain insight into perceived positive outcomes and barriers and facilitators to the implementation. METHODS:We conducted a mixed methods process evaluation on a team-based approach for sustainable employability of long-term care workers. We examined context, recruitment, reach, dose delivered, dose received, fidelity, satisfaction, perceived positive outcomes, and barriers and facilitators. RESULTS:Reach was 11% whereas dose delivered, dose received, fidelity, and satisfaction were above 60%. Perceived positive outcomes included improved team coherence, faster problem solving, and professional development. Barriers and facilitators included collaboration in working groups, motivation, and scheduling meetings. CONCLUSIONS:For the teams reached, the approach was implemented according to protocol and perceived as positive. Future implementation should focus on increasing reach and dose delivered from working groups to teams.

Previous studies showed that many patients with SLE do not have paid work. However, having paid work is important for self-esteem, social contacts and income. It is therefore important to understand the characteristics contributing to work status and in particular identifying modifiable variables to help patients with SLE and their employers to maintain work. The objective of this study is to investigate associations of demographic, disease-related and work characteristics with having and maintaining paid work for ≥ 5 years in patients with SLE over a six-year period. All patients diagnosed with SLE, independent of disease duration and under treatment in Amsterdam UMC location VUmc or Reade were invited to participate in the longitudinal Amsterdam SLE cohort (2007–2018). Demographic, disease-related and work characteristics of these patients were analysed. Baseline was defined as the time of study entrance. Generalized Estimating Equations with logit link function were used to identify associations between these characteristics on having paid work. Logistic regression was used to study associations with maintenance of work and work disability. At baseline, 52 2. Maintaining work is associated with more supervisor support, regular working hours, skill discretion, decision authority, decision latitude. 3. Of the unemployed SLE patients at baseline, 16

Scientific journals, like the Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment and Health, are dependent on their peer reviewers. Without a rigorous peer review of submitted papers, there are no publications and no journals. As researchers, we know that a critical and constructive evaluation of research in the review process is essential to move the science in our field forward. While worldwide the academic peer review system is under pressure (1–3), a rigorous peer review is more important than ever before for three reasons we highlight below: (i) an exponential increase in scholarly journals; (ii) the reduced reliance on facts; and (iii) the intensification of work. In the past years, researchers have received increasingly review requests from what seems a sheer flood of journals from all over the world. As shown in figure 1, the number of scientific journals has increased exponentially (4). Within this increase, we see robust scientific journals but also predatory ones, often characterized by high article processing charges, false claims of peer review, and the unethical listing of academics (or even fake scholars) on editorial boards without their consent (5). To date, www.predatoryjournals.org – a website that provides information and resources on predatory publishing practices – lists 1363 publishers and 2780 journals. Moreover, artificial intelligence (AI) technologies make it increasingly difficult for researchers and society to distinguish between facts (ie, evidence) and fiction. Robust peer reviews and high-quality journals are thus extra important nowadays. The proper use of AI in the writing, reviewing and publishing process is for all of us, editors, reviewers and researchers alike, a new challenge we have to carefully address. Clear guidelines of when AI can or cannot be used are in continuous development (see among others the BMJ www.bmj.com/content/ai-use). Researchers use AI tools for support in writing introductory paragraphs and perhaps in other parts of studies. This proliferation of AI tools will likely result in an increased number of papers. At the same time, we would like to stress that the Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment and Health prohibits reviewers from uploading manuscripts to AI platforms for review purposes as this clearly breach confidentiality, thus the availability of AI tools will likely be only of limited help in the review process. In addition to the tsunami of submitted papers, finding peer reviewers is another bottleneck in the academic peer review system. This is likely related to the intensification of work over the past decades. Society has become more globalized and digitalized, both increasing work pace, with major implications for the 24/7 work environment, making the working life more demanding and intense (6). Academics are experiencing high levels of work pressure (7), which can reduce their availability and willingness to participate in peer reviews (2). Yet, at a time when science is under increasing global pressure—from the rise of misinformation to sweeping policy changes and budget cuts—the need for skilled peer reviewers has never been greater. A robust and thorough review process is essential to uphold research quality in these changing times (8). To achieve this, we must build a large and diverse pool of reviewers that reflects the full breadth of researchers and research in our field. With this editorial, we would like to send out a call for peer review skills development in a mentor–mentee relationship. We at the Journal, but also the entire research community, need the next generation(s) of researchers to learn and apply peer review skills as we strongly believe they are crucial for good science. Senior researchers have many years of valued reviewing experience, and it is exactly this expertise they can pass on to their early-career colleagues. We propose to prioritize mentor–mentee relationships and approach performing a peer review as a necessary cornerstone of the competence and skill development of emerging researchers. As the peer-review process is often not taught by graduate schools or PhD programs, it is the responsibility of the individual PhD supervisor or research leader to teach or promote the important skill of providing constructive feedback which is really different from writing a scientific paper. We recognize that mentoring a new reviewer requires time and commitment from both the mentor and the mentee, as it is a learning process. However, this investment will pay off by helping to cultivate the next generation of thoughtful, critical, and constructive peer reviewers. Reviews conducted through a mentor–mentee collaboration may also lead to higher-quality outcomes, as each reviewer brings a fresh perspective—and no single reviewer can catch everything. In a time of growing societal misinformation, peer review must remain a high priority to safeguard the integrity of research. When it comes to the peer-review process itself, numerous checklists and guidelines exist, but our main message and call for action is to prioritize peer review tasks. In particular, we encourage early-career researchers to collaborate with their senior colleagues in the peer-review process. In 2024, Fagher & Verhagen (9) insightfully summarized the advantages of early-career researchers contributing to peer review. Peer review is an important academic skill that should be incorporated into eg, PhD portfolios. The Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment and Health provides early-career researchers with the opportunity to conduct peer reviews under the responsibility of a senior researcher. We hope this editorial contributes to our peer review system by motivating senior researchers to mentor early-career researchers, and by stimulating early-career researchers to develop their peer review skills. Especially, we hope that all our readers are now extra eager to prioritize peer review tasks and designate their precious time for peer review in good-standard journals. Together we can make it work! References 1. Drozdz JA, Ladomery MR. The Peer Review Process: Past, Present, and Future. Br J Biomed Sci. 2024; 81:12054. https://doi.org/10.3389/bjbs.2024.12054 2. Gropp RE, Glisson S, Gallo S, Thompson L, Peer Review: A System under Stress. BioScience. 2017; 67(5): 407-410. https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci/bix034 3. Aczel B, Barwich AS, Diekman AB, Fishbach A, Goldstone RL, Gomez P, Gundersen OE, von Hippel PT, Holcombe AO, Lewandowsky S, Nozari N, Pestilli F, Ioannidis JPA. The present and future of peer review: Ideas, interventions, and evidence. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 2025; 4;122(5):e2401232121. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2401232121 4. Thelwall M, Sud P. Scopus 1900-2020: Growth in articles, abstracts, countries, fields, and journals. Quant Science Studies. 2022; 3 (1): 37-50. https://doi.org/10.1162/qss_a_00177 5. Elmore SA, Weston EH. Predatory Journals: What They Are and How to Avoid Them. Toxicol Pathol. 2020;48(4):607-610. https://doi.org/10.1177/0192623320920209 6. Mauno S, Herttalampi M, Minkkinen J, Feldt T, Kubicek B. Is work intensification bad for employees? A review of outcomes for employees over the last two decades. 2022. Work & Stress, 37(1), 100-125. https://doi.org/10.1080/02678373.2022.2080778 7. The Netherlands Labour Authority. Occupational health and safety special: research report on psychosocial workload at Dutch universities. Research into the current state of affairs regarding work pressure and undesirable behavior and how the 14 Dutch public universities deal with these psychosocial risks. 2024; Netherlands Labour Authority, Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment. https://www.nllabourauthority.nl/publications/reports/2024/05/14/psychosocial-workload-at-dutch-universities. 8. Bagenal J, Crucefix S, Wilson C, Dehnel T, Thomas H, Nauleau P, et al. To keep health as a unifying force, we must put resources into tackling health misinformation and disinformation. Lancet. 2024;404(10465):1792-1794. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(24)02245-1 9. Fagher K, Verhagen E. Review process: an academic responsibility that facilitates active and peer learning. BMJ Open Sport Exerc Med. 2024;10(4):e002414. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjsem-2024-002414

Combining work and informal caregiving can undermine work-life balance, but our ageing society requires an increase in both informal caregiving and paid work. This chapter examines the extent to which workplace support, in particular flexibility and understanding from supervisors and colleagues, can reduce the work-care conflict experienced by working informal caregivers. We used retrospective data from the Netherlands in which respondents reported on every episode of informal care they provided in their lives, and selected those where they combined informal caregiving with paid work (n = 3,746 episodes of 2,138 informal caregivers). Our results showed that work-care conflict was negatively associated with flexibility at work (among men and women), understanding from the employee's supervisor (among women) and understanding from colleagues (among men). We conclude that promoting workplace flexibility and understanding are promising routes to reducing work-care conflict among informal caregivers, and thereby contributing to sustainable employability.

Objective Work stress is a serious problem for employees in primary education. This study evaluates the effects of a work stress prevention approach on emotional exhaustion and work stress determinants (job crafting behavior, quantitative and emotional demands, leadership, support, autonomy, team culture and feelings of competence), and the impact of implementation success (management commitment, employee involvement, communication during implementation) on these outcomes. Methods A quasi-experimental study was conducted with an intervention group (4 schools, N=102 employees) and a control group (26 schools, N=656 employees) using questionnaires at baseline (T0), one-year (T1) and two-year (T2) follow-up. Multilevel mixed model analyses were performed to test effects of condition and implementation success on changes in emotional exhaustion and work stress determinants between T0 and T2 in the intervention and control group. Results No effect were found for emotional exhaustion. Improvement of quality of leadership between T0 and T2 was significantly larger in the intervention compared to the control group. Additionally, implementation success was associated with a decrease in unnecessary demands and an increase in quality of leadership, team culture and job crafting behavior. Conclusions This study shows no direct effect of the approach on emotional exhaustion, but it does show beneficial effects on quality of leadership. Additionally, results suggest that, when successfully implemented, the approach also has beneficial effects on other work stress determinants (ie, job crafting behavior, unnecessary demands and team culture). Results indicate that - if implemented successfully - the organizational-level intervention has the potential to improve the psychosocial work context.

PURPOSE:The aim of this qualitative study was to explore ways that employer support influenced successful return to work (RTW) in workers with disabilities. METHODS:We conducted a semi-structured interview study among 27 workers with disabilities in the Netherlands who received a partial disability benefit two years after sick leave and who continued working in paid (part-time) employment after a period of long-term sickness absence (> 2 years). We analyzed data by means of thematic analysis. RESULTS:We identified four types of employer support that were experienced as factors of successful RTW: 1. Supervisor accessibility; 2. Supervisor engagement; 3. Supervisor strategies; and 4. Supervisor-initiated work accommodations. More specifically, during the preparations for RTW phase, the supervisor's active role involved having a positive and open attitude toward facilitating RTW; during the initial RTW phase, the supervisor's role involved being creative in finding solutions for work accommodations; and during the sustained RTW phase, the supervisor's role included helping workers who still needed changes in their work situations. CONCLUSION:The elements of successful employer support reveals that the pressure on the shoulders of the supervisor is high. Future research should further investigate whether supervisors need more phase-specific training from their organization.

BACKGROUND:In the changing world of work, there is an urgency to gain insight into determinants of the employability among support staff workers with long tenure whose functions may become outdated as their competencies may no longer match the requirements of future jobs. OBJECTIVE:The specific aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between transformational leadership and employability. METHODS:Support staff (n = 236) from a university participated in an online questionnaire focusing on five dimensions of employability (occupational expertise, anticipation and optimization, personal flexibility, corporate sense, and balance) and transformational leadership (identifying and articulating a vision, providing an appropriate model, fostering the acceptance of group goals, providing individual support, and intellectual stimulation. RESULTS:Identifying and articulating a vision (β= 0.247, p < 0.001), providing an appropriate model (β= 0.196, p = 0.002), fostering the acceptance of group goals (β= 0.298, p < 0.001) and providing individual support (β= 0.258, p < 0.001) were associated with higher balance scores. No significant associations were found between the transformational leadership subscales and the other dimensions of employability. CONCLUSION:The current study found that just one specific dimension of transformational leadership was associated with only one aspect of employability for our target group of long-term employed support staff workers with a high level of job security.

OBJECTIVE: This paper presents an overview of 50 years of research on psychosocial working conditions and health with regards to conceptualization, interventions and policy. We reflect on the promise of past and current research on psychosocial working conditions and, in addition, discuss current progress in translating this research into workplace practice and improvements in people’s working lives. METHODS: We conducted a narrative review of meta-reviews and key publications on psychosocial working conditions and health. The review covers a historical overview of theories of the past 50 years, measurement of psychosocial working conditions, health effects, intervention research, and policy development on psychosocial working conditions. RESULTS: Psychosocial working conditions are conceptualized in different ways, with increasing complexity in the understanding developing over time. Exposures related to psychosocial working conditions are associated with a wide range of health outcomes, in particular cardiovascular disease and mental health conditions. In response to growing evidence on associations between psychosocial working conditions and health outcomes, intervention research has expanded rapidly, but for various reasons the evidence base is stronger and more extensive for individual- than organizational-level interventions. This individual/organizational imbalance is reflected in practice, and may partly explain why policy interventions have yet to show reductions in exposures to psychosocial work factors and associated adverse outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: Pressing needs for advancing the field include improvements in capturing exposure dynamics, developing objective measures of exposure, methodologic advancements to optimize causal inference in etiologic studies, and alternatives to randomized controlled trials for intervention evaluation.

AIM:To discover what long-term care (LTC) staff working in self-managing teams consider necessary to remain sustainably employable. DESIGN:Qualitative study with semi-structured interviews. METHODS:In 2020, semi-structured interviews were conducted one-on-one with 25 LTC workers from a medium-large Dutch organization providing long-term care. All interviews were audio-recorded, anonymously transcribed verbatim and analysed with thematic content analysis in the software program Atlas.ti. RESULTS:LTC workers indicated a need for autonomy. They wanted their control and involvement in decisions to be strengthened. Furthermore, LTC workers indicated a need for relatedness, by experiencing support, a feeling of togetherness and more time to have attention for the residents. Lastly, LTC workers expressed a need for (assistance in) further developing their competence. CONCLUSION:In order to remain willing and able to work, LTC workers in self-managing teams want their needs for autonomy, relatedness and competence to be addressed. Working conditions are important to these LTC workers' sustainable employability since they can hinder or promote the satisfaction of their needs. IMPLICATIONS:It is important that management in LTC is aware of the importance of LTC workers' needs for sustainable employability. We recommend that management critically reflect on and invest in addressing these needs by enhancing indicators and limiting inhibitors of the needs. IMPACT:A robust LTC workforce is necessary to provide care to the aging population. In the context of the increasing implementation of self-managing teams in LTC organizations, understanding what workers in self-managing teams need in order to remain sustainably employable is crucial. For sustainable employability (i.e. to remain willing and able to work), interviewees indicated a need for autonomy, relatedness, and competence. Nearly all participants stressed the importance of belonging and feeling connected. Working conditions seemed to relate not only directly to the sustainable employability of LTC staff but also indirectly through their lack of contribution to the satisfaction of workers' psychological needs. The outcomes of this study primarily impact workers and management within LTC organizations with self-managing teams. They benefit from recognizing the significance of addressing workers' needs to ensure their essential and sustainable employability in the sector. REPORTING METHOD:The Standards for Reporting Qualitative Research and the Consolidated Criteria for Reporting Qualitative (COREQ) research were used. PATIENT OR PUBLIC CONTRIBUTION:Two LTC workers provided advice and feedback regarding the materials and set up of the interviews. These two ambassadors additionally helped in reaching our population, by disseminating information about the study.

OBJECTIVES:Corporate executive job demands may lead to poor sleep habits, increasing their risk for cardiometabolic disease. This study aimed to describe and explore associations between objectively measured habitual sleep characteristics and cardiometabolic disease risk of corporate executives, while accounting for occupational, psychological, and lifestyle factors. METHODS:Habitual sleep was measured using wrist-worn actigraphy and a sleep diary over seven consecutive days in 61 (68.3% men) corporate executives aged 46.4 ± 8.7years. A composite cardiometabolic disease risk score was determined using body mass index, waist circumference, blood pressure and fasting glucose and lipid concentrations. Prediction models were built using a backward stepwise selection approach to explore associations between sleep characteristics and cardiometabolic disease risk factors adjusting for occupational, psychological, and lifestyle covariates. RESULTS:Average total sleep time was 6.60 ± 0.75 hours, with 51.7% of participants reporting poor sleep quality and 26.2% extending their weekend sleep. Adjusted models showed that lower sleep efficiency (β = -0.25, 95%CI: -0.43; -0.08, P = .006), shorter weekday total sleep time (β = -1.37, 95% CI: -2.41, -0.32; P = .011) and catch-up sleep (β = 0.84, 95%CI: 0.08, 1.60, P = .002) were associated with higher cardiometabolic disease risk scores. Adjusted models also found that shorter average time-in-bed (ß=-2.00, 95%CI: -3.76; -0.18, P = .031), average total sleep time (ß=1.98, 95%CI: -3.70; -0.25, P = .025) and weekday total sleep time (β = -2.13, 95%CI: -3.56; -0.69, P = .025) as well as catch-up sleep (β = 1.67, 95% CI: 0.52; 2.83; P = .012) were all associated with a higher body mass index. CONCLUSION:Corporate executives who compromise sleep duration during the working week may increase their risk for obesity and future cardiometabolic disease.

BackgroundThe evidence base for the relationship between psychosocial work factors and mental health focuses primarily on the general working population but little is known about young workers. The aim of this qualitative study is to identify psychosocial work factors that affect the mental health of young workers, with a focus on (1) novel factors of the psychosocial work environment that are relevant for young workers but have not been described in the literature and (2) experiences of psychosocial work factors associated with mental health that are specific to and typical for young workers.MethodsSemi-structured interviews were held with 36 workers aged up to 30. Participants were asked to describe work situations that affected their mental health. Factors were identified using a combination of inductive and deductive coding and open-coded factors were mapped onto the Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire (COPSOQ), which is widely used as a framework for psychosocial work factors.ResultsMost of the psychosocial factors mentioned by the young workers could be mapped onto the COPSOQ framework and were therefore similar to the general working population. Novel factors identified by this study were "Procedural support" and "Responsibility for others". We also identified young-worker-specific experiences of psychosocial work factors associated with mental health (i.e. Quantitative Demands, Influence at Work, Commitment to the Workplace, Job Insecurity, Quality of work, Job satisfaction, and Vertical Trust). Lastly, young workers did not report the COPSOQ factor Insecurity over working conditions and Work-life conflict was reported as an indicator of mental health status rather than being perceived as a factor of the psychosocial work environment.ConclusionsPsychosocial work factors and their influence on mental health reported by young workers in this qualitative study are comparable to what is reported for the general working population. There are however some young-worker-specific experiences of psychosocial work factors and two novel factors. The novel factors, "Procedural support" and "Responsibility for others" are not found in common psychosocial work factor frameworks and might be studied specifically in relation to young workers. Our results provide organisations with levers that can be used to create a psychosocial work environment that benefits the mental health of young workers.

Objective To study transitions in work participation in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) over a six year period. In addition, possible associations with having (and maintaining) paid work, and receiving work disability pension were studied, focusing on demographic, disease-related and work characteristics. Methods Patients are participants of the Amsterdam SLE cohort. For this study, data from all patients with 5 yearly follow-up visits were used for the analyses. Logistic Generalized Estimating Equations were performed to identify associations between demographic, disease-related and work characteristics and having paid work. Logistic regression analyses were performed to study associations with maintaining paid work after 6 years and with work disability. Results In total, 261 patients were included in the SLE cohort. A total of 220 SLE patients had at least 5 follow-up visits and were included in this study (table 1). Fifty-two percent had paid work at baseline, which decreased to 46% after six years (figure 1). Of the patients without paid work at baseline, 16% started working during follow-up of whom 29% maintained work. Maintaining work for ≥5 years during follow-up occurred in 29 percent. The majority (63%) of patients without work at baseline reported to have stopped working due to SLE-related symptoms. Having paid work was associated with younger age, higher level of education, shorter disease duration, lower organ damage index and supervisor support at work. Maintaining work for ≥5 years during follow-up was associated with regular working hours, skill discretion, decision authority and decision latitude. Work disability at baseline was associated with a longer disease duration. Conclusion Having work is associated with various characteristics, but maintaining work is mainly associated with work characteristics. Work disability is only associated with longer disease duration. So, depending on the work situation of the patient as well as future whishes related to work participation, different types of interventions are needed to support work participation of patients with SLE. Funding A research grant from the NVLE Foundation was used to perform this study.

Objectives This study examined the associations between implemented disability-related policies and practices (DPP) and sustained employment among partially disabled employees in The Netherlands. Methods Employer survey data on implemented DPP were linked to register data on employment outcomes of partially disabled employees (N=6103 employees from N=366 employers). DPP included six domains based on 48 elements: sick leave policy, occupational health and safety services (OHS), prevention policy, reintegration policy, reintegration practices within the current employer and reintegration practices towards another employer. DPP domains were standardized on a 0-1 scale. Separate logistic regression models were estimated for DDP domains on one-year sustained employment adjusted for employee characteristics, firm size, and sector. Results Almost all organizations implemented at least one element of DPP on prevention policy, OHS, sick leave policy, and reintegration practices within the current employer, and two-thirds on reintegration policy and reintegration practices towards another employer. Implemented DPP on prevention policy [odds ratio (OR) 2.3, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.3-4.0], OHS (OR 1.9, 95% CI 1.1-3.2), and sick leave policy (OR 1.8, 95% CI 1.0-3.3) were positively associated with sustained employment. No significant results were found for reintegration policy and both reintegration practices domains. Stratified analysis showed that DDP domains were particularly associated with sustained employment in larger organizations and in the private sector. Conclusions Implemented DPP related to sick leave policy, OHS and prevention policy are associated with sustained employment among partially disabled employees, in particular in larger organizations and in the private sector.

Objective Participatory organizational-level interventions carry a risk of implementation failure. The current study evaluates the implementation of a work stress prevention approach in primary education and reflects on the use of real-time feedback as implementation strategy to prevent this risk. Methods The process evaluation was conducted at four primary schools in the Netherlands. A framework for evaluating organizational-level interventions was applied using mixed methods. Results Results show the implementation level varied between schools and was hindered by the intervention context, school size, and planning of the approach. Management commitment and employee involvement seemed important factors for successful implementation. Real-time feedback seemed valuable to further improve implementation, but not to prevent implementation failure. Conclusions Collecting data on implementation factors before the active phase of the approach, may provide the possibility to anticipate on implementation problems earlier.