Healthy worker effect phenomenon

Some observations on the healthy worker effect.

Healthy worker effect in hairdressing apprentices.

BACKGROUND Hairdressers and hairdressing apprentices have a high incidence of occupational hand eczema, owing to excessive wet work and exposure to chemical substances. Hairdressing apprentices, in particular, seem to be at high risk of developing hand eczema. Previous hand eczema and atopic dermatitis are known risk factors for the development of hand eczema in wet work occupations. OBJECTIV...

The healthy worker effect in cancer incidence studies.

Use of the general population as a reference might cause serious underestimation of the risk of cancer in working populations because of the healthy worker effect. Using incidence rates, we studied how this underestimation varied according to subtypes of cancer by comparing a large cohort of randomly selected Norwegian workers hired between 1981 and 2003 (n = 366,114) with the general Norwegian...

A review of the healthy worker effect in occupational epidemiology.

This review article aims to anatomize sources of the healthy worker effect (HWE) and to summarize advantages and limitations of several approaches frequently proposed to eliminate the HWE. Although the HWE is frequently addressed in the context of selection bias, our review suggests that the selection of occupational cohorts with advantageous health status would preferably be addressed as a sou...

Healthy worker effect in the total Finnish population.

The selection due to the "healthy worker effect" was estimated from a random sample of the total Finnish population. The sample of 20 000 people was followed for changes in occupations from 1960 to 1970 and for deaths in 1971-5. Those entering the active work force had a standard mortality ratio of 70, indicating a healthy population selection effect. Those staying in the same occupational cate...