ABSTRACT
Do working conditions enhance the development of age-related diseases or age-dependent diseases? To answer that question, we have undertaken two prospective longitudinal surveys. The purpose of the first study is to establish whether occupational risk factors have a long-term effect on health after retirement. It focuses on 993 retired subjects (men and women) aged at baseline 60 and over who were randomly selected from the file of an interprofessional supplementary pension fund in the Paris area. Information about occupational exposures and health status was collected by means of a questionnaire in 1982 and 1987. The results suggest that occupational risk factors and a high job mobility during working life might be risk factors for several impairments (cardiorespiratory and osteoarticular) and disability after retirement. The second survey is, for the moment, a cross-sectional study and was begun in 1990, It concerns 21 378 men and women wage earners who were born in 1938, 1943, 1948 or 1953 and who live in seven French regions. The subjects were randomly selected from lists of wage earners who have been followed by 380 occupational physicians. Information was collected by a personal interview with the worker and a clinical examination. The first results have shown relationships between age, low-back pain, heavy physical work and the ability to choose how to perform work. Methodological problems of these two surveys are discussed.
