Long-term life satisfaction in ageing women with work disability due to mental and musculoskeletal disorders

Mental disorders (MDs) and musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) are the major causes of global disability and increase in prevalence with age.

To support healthy ageing, we studied how work disability due to MDs or MSDs is related to life satisfaction (LS) cross-sectionally and in 5- and 10-year follow-ups among ageing women.

In the population-based OSTPRE cohort (women aged 58-67 in 1999), data on lifetime permanent work disability pensions (DPs) due to 'MDs only' (n = 337), 'MSDs only' (n = 942) and 'MDs + MSDs' (n = 212) and 'no DP' (n = 6322) until 1999 was obtained from the Finnish national register. The OSTPRE postal enquiry included a four-item life satisfaction (LS) scale (range 4-20: satisfied 4-6, intermediate 7-11, dissatisfied 12-20) at 5-year intervals, in 1999-2004 (n = 6548) and in 1999-2009 (n = 5562).

In 1999, the risks of belonging to the dissatisfied LS group (score 12-20) vs. the satisfied group (score 4-6) were higher in 'MDs only' (OR = 4.30; 95%CI 2.95-6.28), 'MSDs only' (OR = 2.69; 2.12-3.40) and 'MDs + MSDs' (OR = 2.72; 1.77-4.16) groups than in the 'no DP' group. In the follow-ups, these risks were OR_5yr = 5.59 (3.54-8.84) and OR_10yr = 4.94 (2.80-8.73) for 'MDs only', OR_5yr = 3.36 (2.58-4.37) and OR_10yr = 3.18 (2.40-4.21) for 'MSDs only', and OR_5yr = 4.70 (2.75-8.05) and OR_10yr = 6.84 (3.53-13.27) for 'MDs + MSDs' (all: p ≤ 0.001). Adjusting for baseline LS did not change the pattern (all p ≤ 0.001).

Work disability due to MDs and MSDs undermines healthy ageing among women via life dissatisfaction.