[When are young people awarded disability pensions for sociomedical indications? A study from the municipality of Copenhagen].

Since 1984 it has been possible in Denmark to receive disability pensions for combined social and health reasons. About 500 people under the age of 45 have been pensioned in this way every year in the municipality of Copenhagen. The records of 476 persons awarded pensions in 1989 were examined with the purpose of describing their social history and health and social status at the time of pensioning. There were more men (62%) than women (38%). One hundred and nine pensioners were under 35 years of age. Forty-one percent of the pensioners grew up in broken families, and 38% lived apart from their parents during childhood. Only one quarter had occupational training. The pensioners had on average been working for nine years. Nearly two-thirds had received social security for more than five years. Thirty percent had no flat of their own, and 76% were living alone. Rehabilitation was attempted in 53% of the cases. Of the men, 89% abused alcohol and/or drugs, of the women 63%. Twenty-six percent of the pensioners were opioid addicts. There was significant somatic disease in one-third of the cases. The social strain on the youngest pensioners (< 35 years old) was in many respects the worst. Disability pensioners for combined health and social reasons were characterized by underprivileged childhood, bad education and an early developed abuse of alcohol and drugs. If disability pensioning is to be avoided, the community must intervene much earlier in the social course. It is currently not realistic to abolish disability pensions for this group of people.