Health and Future
Hälsa och framtid
Health and Future is a research project on private companies with long-term healthy employees. Despite sick leave being a problem in Sweden these days, there are many workplaces with unusually healthy employees. The aim of this project is to study potential factors at an organisational level that may explain why employees at certain companies are in particularly good health.
There are many known individual risk factors regarding work-related illness. A lot less is known about the organisational conditions that may be related to the health of the employees.
Four sub studies
The project consists of four sub studies. The first one is a register study, where data from different registers have been combined in order to establish whether companies with healthy employees differ from other companies. Sub study 1
The second sub study is a qualitative study. Interviews were carried out with managers and employee representatives at a number of companies with low levels of long-term sickness absence and companies with a more "average" level of sick leave. Sub study 2
In the third sub study, questionnaires were sent out to managing directors and human resource managers at a large number of companies. The questionnaires were based on results from sub study 2. Sub study 3
The fourth sub study investigated whether rehabilitation routines contributed to companies having healthy employees. Sub study 4
Read the summary of all four sub studies.
Research and records of insurance
Research for the Health and Future project was carried out by Stockholm County Council’s Centre for Public Health, the Karolinska Institutet and Uppsala University. In order to find suitable companies for the study, we were given access to the records of insurance company AFA Insurance and occupational pension insurance company Alecta.
AFA Insurance and Alecta provide Swedish employees with insurance against illness, shortage of work, or work-related injuries, as stipulated by union collective agreements. Approximately 4.6 million people are covered by these registers.
Financing
The project received a total of 12.75 million SEK (Swedish krona) in financial support from AFA Insurance, Alecta, Carl Bennet AB, Axel Johnsson AB and AB Volvo. A reference group, with representatives from Svenskt Näringsliv (Confederation of Swedish Enterprise), Företagarna (Federation of Private Enterprises), LO (The Swedish Trade Union Confederation), IF Metall (Swedish Industrial and Metal Workers Union), TCO (The Swedish Confederation for Professional Employees), Unionen (The Union), SACO (The Swedish Confederation of Professional Associations) and PTK (The Council for Negotiation and Co-operation) also support the project.