This work presents a summary of research evidence on links between work, health and disability. Across two sections it summarizes updated knowledge on adverse effects of distinct occupational hazards, and it covers concerns with employment opportunities or restrictions. The handbook delivers an overview of material and psychosocial factors as occupational hazards on working people’s physical or mental health that may result in functional impairment and disability. This knowledge can be instrumental in strengthening efforts of professionals and other stakeholders to promote health-conducive working conditions and prevent work-related disability risks. It also covers concerns with employment opportunities or restrictions of persons with physical or mental health problems and disability. This field of interdisciplinary research has grown with a broad range of solid new findings that can have favorable impact on work disability prevention and the practice of medical and vocational rehabilitation. Prominent experts discuss this evidence for major manifestations of physical and mental health problems and disabilities.
As a further innovative feature, this handbook integrates biomedical, psychological, and sociological knowledge on major aspects of the links between work, health and disability. It is therefore of interest to students and professionals in related disciplines, as well as for stakeholders involved in the prevention of work disability and rehabilitation into paid work. In times of an increasingly aging work force with elevated risks of reduced health and work functioning, this knowledge can contribute to turning the threats associated with disability into opportunities. This handbook supports the overall aim of enabling persons with (chronic) health problems and disability to participate in work and social life.
Ute Bültmann is full Professor of Work and Health in the Department of Health Sciences, Community and Occupational Medicine at the University Medical Center Groningen/University of Groningen in the Netherlands. She completed both her M.Sc. and Ph.D. at Maastricht University, the Netherlands. From 2003 until 2007, she worked at the National Institute of Occupational Health in Copenhagen, Denmark. Her research includes the epidemiology of work and (mental) health and the measurement of health-related functioning at work. In addition to collaborative work and health research in Canada, she is affiliated with the National Research Centre for the Working Environment in Copenhagen (DK) and the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm (SE). She is Vice-President of the European Public Health Association (EUPHA) Section “Social Security, Work and Health.” She (co-)authored more than 200 scientific publications. Her current research activities focus on work and health research from a life-courseperspective with strong policy and practice links. She is a VICI laureate of the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) for her research on “Today’s youth is tomorrow’s workforce: Generation Y at work.”
Johannes Siegrist is currently Senior Professor of work stress research at Heinrich Heine University Duesseldorf in Germany. He received his Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Freiburg i. Br. in 1969, and he held professorships for medical sociology at the Universities of Marburg and Duesseldorf from 1973 to 2012. He was visiting professor at the Johns Hopkins University (USA) (1981) and at Utrecht University (NE) 1994). With his long-standing research on healthadverse psychosocial work environments and social inequalities in health, he has published more than 500 papers and book chapters and several international books. In addition to his collaboration in distinct European research networks, he served as a consultant to the World Health Organization, and he chaired several national and international academic societies. Among other distinctions, he is a member of Academia Europaea (London) and a corresponding member of the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences.
