2005). Materials and methods Design and population For this cross-sectional study, 1,035

male and 905 female workers (Table 1) were chosen from the MSNS cohort who completed both the baseline and follow-up MSNS questionnaires. Selleck VX-689 The MSNS cohort consists of men and women, residing in the city of Malmö (240 000 inhabitants), Sweden, who were between 45 and 65 years of age in 1991, and who were recruited into the larger Malmö Diet and Cancer Study (MDCS) (Manjer et al. 2001) from February 1992 to December 1994. The cohort was recruited during the major political and financial crisis period of the Swedish society, for instance, unemployment rate dramatically increased from 1.7 % in 1990 to 9.4 % in 1994 (OECD 2006). Comparison with a public health survey (Lindström et al. 2001), covering 74.6% of the same age cohort, suggests that the MDCS population AMN-107 sample was selected toward better health than in the general population (Manjer et al. 2001). The participants in the original MDCS (n = 14,555; participation rate, 40.8%) filled in a baseline (T 1) questionnaire.

After about 1 year (mean follow-up time, 403 days; standard deviation, 49), a follow-up (T 2) questionnaire was mailed to the baseline participants. The follow-up questionnaire was returned by 12,607 men and women. Non-respondents were younger, less educated, and than respondents, but there were no gender differences between respondents and non-respondents. Table 1 Distributions

of socio-demographic variables, psychosocial work characteristics, and psychological distress (GHQ case) in the Swedish male (n = 1,035) and female (n = 905) workers Variables Category Men (%) Women (%) Age (years) 45–54 61.0 62.8 55–64 39.0 37.2 Education (years) Up to 12 70.6 68.4 Over 12 29.4 31.6 Marital status Married 75.9 62.8 Non-married 24.1 37.2 Origin of country Swedish 92.8 93.4 Non-Swedish 7.2 6.6 Cross-sectional (at T 1) Low job control 30.5 46.6 High job demands 51.2 45.9 Low social support at work 50.4 44.9 Cross-sectional (at T 2) Low job control 33.8* 55.2** High job demands 55.2* 48.8 Low social support at work 49.8 49.6** Cross-time (both at T 1 and T 2) Consistent mafosfamide C, D, and S across times 46.8 44.8 Changed C, D, or S across times 53.2 55.2 Family-to-work conflict (at T 2)   10.7 18.5 Stress from outside-work problems (at T 2)   20.5 31.6 Worry due to family members (at T 2)   7.5 21.0 Number of days on sick leave (at T 2) ≤3 days 87.1 79.2 ≥4 days 12.9 20.8 GHQ case (at T 2)   11.2 19.4 C job control, D job demands, S social support at work. * p < 0.05; ** p < 0.01 when compared by repeated measures t-tests with values at T 1 Unfortunately, information on general psychological distress was not measured in the baseline study so it was not possible to perform a longitudinal analysis.