World Health Organization (WHO) and International Labour Organization (ILO) systematic reviews reported sufficient evidence for higher risks of ischemic heart disease and stroke amongst people working long hours (≥55 hours/week), compared with people working standard hours (35–40 hours/week). This article presents WHO/ILO Joint Estimates of global, regional, and national exposure to long working hours, for 194 countries, and the attributable burdens of ischemic heart disease and stroke, for 183 countries, by sex and age, for 2000, 2010, and 2016. We calculated population-attributable fractions from estimates of the population exposed to long working hours and relative risks of exposure on the diseases from the systematic reviews. The exposed population was modelled using data from 2324 cross-sectional surveys and 1742 quarterly survey datasets. Attributable disease burdens were estimated by applying the population-attributable fractions to WHO’s Global Health Estimates of total disease burdens. In 2016, 488 million people (95% uncertainty range: 472–503 million), or 8.9% (8.6–9.1) of the global population, were exposed to working long hours (≥55 hours/week). An estimated 745,194 deaths (705,786–784,601) and 23.3 million disability-adjusted life years (22.2–24.4) from ischemic heart disease and stroke combined were attributable to this exposure. The population-attributable fractions for deaths were 3.7% (3.4–4.0) for ischemic heart disease and 6.9% for stroke (6.4–7.5); for disability-adjusted life years they were 5.3% (4.9–5.6) for ischemic heart disease and 9.3% (8.7–9.9) for stroke. WHO and ILO estimate exposure to long working hours (≥55 hours/week) is common and causes large attributable burdens of ischemic heart disease and stroke. Protecting and promoting occupational and workers’ safety and health requires interventions to reduce hazardous long working hours.
A World Health Organization (WHO) and International Labour Organization (ILO) systematic review reported sufficient evidence for higher risk of non-melanoma skin cancer (NMSC) amongst people occupationally exposed to solar ultraviolet radiation (UVR). This article presents WHO/ILO Joint Estimates of global, regional, national and subnational occupational exposures to UVR for 195 countries/areas and the global, regional and national attributable burdens of NMSC for 183 countries, by sex and age group, for the years 2000, 2010 and 2019. We calculated population-attributable fractions (PAFs) from estimates of the population occupationally exposed to UVR and the risk ratio for NMSC from the WHO/ILO systematic review. Occupational exposure to UVR was modelled via proxy of occupation with outdoor work, using 166 million observations from 763 cross-sectional surveys for 96 countries/areas. Attributable NMSC burden was estimated by applying the PAFs to WHO's estimates of the total NMSC burden. Measures of inequality were calculated. Globally in 2019, 1.6 billion workers (95 % uncertainty range [UR] 1.6-1.6) were occupationally exposed to UVR, or 28.4 % (UR 27.9-28.8) of the working-age population. The PAFs were 29.0 % (UR 24.7-35.0) for NMSC deaths and 30.4 % (UR 29.0-31.7) for disability-adjusted life years (DALYs). Attributable NMSC burdens were 18,960 deaths (UR 18,180-19,740) and 0.5 million DALYs (UR 0.4-0.5). Men and older age groups carried larger burden. Over 2000-2019, attributable deaths and DALYs almost doubled. WHO and the ILO estimate that occupational exposure to UVR is common and causes substantial, inequitable and growing attributable burden of NMSC. Governments must protect outdoor workers from hazardous exposure to UVR and attributable NMSC burden and inequalities.
27 January 2022 in International Journal of Eating Disorders
Objective: Previous literature has established an increased risk of eating disorders among individuals with other psychiatric disorders and vice versa. However, often studies have focused on eating disorders as a single diagnostic entity and/or investigated selected psychiatric comorbidities. We conducted a comprehensive study, exploring bidirectional associations between different types of eating disorders and broad groups of all other psychiatric disorders, to identify patterns of comorbidity.Method: We included all people born in Denmark 1963–2010. We collected information on eating disorders and considered the risk of subsequent psychiatric disorders using Cox‐proportional hazards regression. Absolute risks were calculated using competing risks survival analyses. We also considered prior psychiatric disorders and subsequent eating disorders.Results: An increased risk was seen for almost all disorder pairs of diagnoses evaluated. Following an anorexia nervosa (AN) diagnosis, the median hazard ratio for the different subsequent psychiatric disorders was 3.80 (range 2.48–6.15); following an other eating disorder (OED) diagnosis, it was 3.16 (range 2.05–5.14). After different psychiatric disorder diagnoses, the median hazard ratio was 2.66 for later AN (range 1.21–5.31), and 2.51 for later OED (range 1.25–4.10). Absolute risk of eating disorders was also higher among those with other psychiatric disorders than those without.Discussion: In this broad examination, we identified bidirectional increases in risk of comorbidity for those with both eating disorder diagnoses and psychiatric disorder diagnoses. Although our findings indicate different patterns of comorbidity between eating disorders, these variations were generally small.
18 February 2022 in Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica
Objective: Information on mental disorders over time is critical for documenting changes in population burden, and aiding understanding of potential causal and non‐causal factors. The aim of this study was to provide temporal changes in the sex‐ and age‐specific incidence rates (IR) of mental disorders diagnosed in Danish hospitals during five decades and investigate whether such changes may be attributable to changes in administrative reporting practice.Methods: This population‐based cohort study included all people living in Denmark between 1970 and 2016. Mental disorders diagnoses were obtained from the Danish Psychiatric Central Research Register. We estimated the IR of each mental disorder (all persons, and sex‐ and age‐specific IRs) and examined the impact of two administrative changes.Results: Our study included 9 107 157 people, followed for 233.0 million person‐years. During follow‐up, 9.5% were diagnosed with at least one mental disorder. The IR for any mental disorder was 39.0 per 10,000 person‐years. Despite fluctuations, this increased between 1970–84 and 2005–2016, from 28.9 to 63.0 per 10,000 person‐years. Increases were most pronounced for younger age groups. Administrative changes did appear to influence incidence rates.Conclusion: Mental disorder IRs have increased in Denmark since 1970, with age of diagnosis shifting downwards. Both trends were likely impacted by administrative changes, while the latter is likely to be (partly) attributable to earlier detection and increased reporting of child‐onset conditions. Our findings may provide valuable context of the epidemiology of mental disorders across age groups for comparison with other studies and populations.
Background: Register‐based studies of major depressive disorder (MDD) do not capture all prevalent cases, as untreated cases and diagnoses made by general practitioners are not recorded in the registers. We examined the prevalence and agreement of survey‐ and register‐based measures of depression, and explored sociodemographic and health‐related factors that may have influenced this agreement.Methods: All 32,407 participants in the 2017 Central Denmark Region How are you? survey were linked to hospital and prescription records. A checklist for depressive symptoms within the last 14 days (Major Depression Inventory; MDI) from the survey was compared with register‐based assessment of hospital‐diagnosed MDD and/or prescriptions for antidepressants. We estimated agreement between survey‐based and register‐based measures for depression and used logistic regression models to explore selected associated factors.Results: In total, 5.9% of How are you? survey participants screened positive for current depression on the MDI. Of these, 51.3% (95% confidence interval (CI): 49.0–53.6) filled a prescription for an antidepressant medication during the 10 years prior or 2 years following the administration of the survey, and 14.5% (95% CI: 12.9–16.2) were treated for MDD in a psychiatric hospital‐based setting. When using a higher threshold of the MDI indicating more severe current depression, 22.8% (95% CI: 19.6–26.1) of those who screened positive also received an MDD diagnosis and 63.4% (95% CI: 59.7–67.2) were prescribed antidepressants during this 12‐year period. Among those with current depression, female sex, older age, chronic diseases, hospital‐treated self‐harm, and being permanently outside the workforce were associated with having a register‐based MDD diagnosis or antidepressant prescription. Among those with a register‐based depression record, female sex, younger age, hospital‐treated self‐harm, stress, and severe loneliness were associated with current depression.Conclusion: We found that as few as 15% of individuals with current depression in the general Danish population were captured by the psychiatric hospital register, while 51% of these individuals were identifiable in the prescription register. These findings demonstrate that register‐based measures significantly underestimate the true prevalence of depression by identifying only the cases that are most severe.