Exposure to workplace bullying and violence/threats of violence and subsequent working life expectancy among older workers: A Swedish prospective cohort study

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to quantify possible associations between exposure to workplace bullying and violence, or threats thereof, and working life expectancy (WLE) among older workers in Sweden. METHODS: We conducted a prospective cohort study using data on 12 920 individuals in analyses of workplace bullying and 12 903 individuals in analyses of violence. Participants, aged >50 at baseline, were obtained from the Swedish Longitudinal Occupational Survey of Health, using data from 2008 to 2020. We applied continuous-time multistate Markov models to estimate the average number of years that individuals could be expected to work beyond the age of 50, comparing those exposed to workplace bullying or workplace violence/threats of violence to those unexposed. RESULTS: In the unadjusted analysis, exposure to workplace bullying and workplace violence/threats of violence was associated with shorter WLE among older workers [bullying: -0.42 years, 95% confidence interval (CI) -1.23-0.01; violence: -0.42 years, 95% CI -1.06-0.01]. After controlling for sex and occupational level, WLE at age 50 was -0.56 years among those exposed to workplace violence (95% CI -1.02- -0.10) compared with the unexposed. The esti mate for workplace bullying was -0.63 years (95% CI -1.39-0.14). CONCLUSION: Exposure to workplace violence or threats of violence was associated with fewer average expected years in work from age 50. This suggests that prevention of workplace violence could contribute to extended working lives. The association between workplace bullying and WLE was of similar magnitude but not statistically significant.