Ford Katherine J, Batty G David, Leist Anja K
Department of Social Sciences, Institute for Research on Socio-Economic Inequality (IRSEI), University of Luxembourg, Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg.
Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London, London, UK.
Eur J Public Health. 2021 Feb 1;31(1):174-180. doi: 10.1093/eurpub/ckaa173.
Limited workplace control, an important dimension of job strain, can reduce occupational opportunities for problem solving and learning. Women may have fewer professional resources to mitigate effects of low control, while conversely, gender-role norms may moderate the influence of occupational psychosocial risk factors. We therefore examined whether the links between control and cognitive function were similarly gendered.
This observational, longitudinal study included respondents of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe who were aged 50-64 years at entry, employed and provided at least two measurements of control and cognition (n = 6697). Relationships between control and cognition, quantified with standardized scores from verbal fluency, immediate and delayed word recall tests, were explored using linear fixed-effect and random-effect models with gender interactions.
Consistent trends of improved verbal fluency performance with high control were evident across analyses, equal to producing around three-quarters of a word more under high control conditions, with an effect size ∼0.1 SD units (fully adjusted models, range 0.077-0.104 SD), although associations with recall tests were inconsistent. We did not find evidence of clear gender differences in control-cognition relationships for any of the cognitive domains.
The cognitive health of older European workers may benefit from improved workplace control irrespective of gender. Possible sources of bias that could explain the lack of gender differences are discussed, particularly gender differences in labour force participation, response behaviour in job control ratings and implications of gender-role norms on the importance of occupational risk factors.
工作场所控制权有限是工作压力的一个重要方面，它会减少解决问题和学习的职业机会。女性可能拥有较少的专业资源来减轻低控制权的影响，而相反，性别角色规范可能会调节职业心理社会风险因素的影响。因此，我们研究了控制权与认知功能之间的联系是否同样存在性别差异。
这项观察性纵向研究纳入了欧洲健康、老龄化和退休调查的受访者，他们在进入研究时年龄在50 - 64岁之间，有工作，并提供了至少两次控制权和认知能力的测量数据（n = 6697）。使用带有性别交互项的线性固定效应和随机效应模型，探讨了控制权与认知能力之间的关系，认知能力通过言语流畅性、即时和延迟单词回忆测试的标准化分数来量化。
在各项分析中，高控制权下言语流畅性表现改善的一致趋势很明显，相当于在高控制权条件下多产出约四分之三个单词，效应大小约为0.1标准差单位（完全调整模型，范围为0.077 - 0.104标准差），尽管与回忆测试的关联并不一致。我们没有发现任何认知领域在控制权 - 认知关系上存在明显性别差异的证据。
欧洲老年工作者的认知健康可能会受益于工作场所控制权的改善，无论性别如何。讨论了可能解释缺乏性别差异的偏差来源，特别是劳动力参与方面的性别差异、工作控制权评级中的反应行为以及性别角色规范对职业风险因素重要性的影响。
