Seasonal employees at ski resorts represent a high-risk population for the use of alcohol and drugs, as well as other negative lifestyle behaviours. These employees work and live in a context where the customers are on holiday and hence alcohol is used frequently. To our knowledge there is a gap in the literature regarding alcohol and drug consumption among seasonal employees. Particularly studies in the context of ski resorts are lacking. The overall purpose of our study was to evaluate a policy-based intervention at a ski resort area in Sweden. The intervention was led by a project leader together with managers from different tourism industries, the health sector, social service and police. Components in the intervention were e.g. policy development and implementation, education of managers and creation of a manager network.  In total, 48 enterprises participated. A questionnaire, concerning alcohol and drug use and social aspects, was distributed before and after the intervention. The firs questionnaire was answered by 611 (47%) respondents and 423 (34%) respondents the follow-up questionnaire after two years. In addition, five persons in the project group was interviewed after the intervention.  Based on survey data, comparisons before and after the intervention showed several positive results. The  results show a significant reduction of hazardous drinking and an  increased awareness of the companies’ alcohol- and drug policies among the employees. No significant effects on drug consumption were found. The project group reported better knowledge about alcohol and drugs. However, most important was the increased collaboration between managers in tourism industries. The intervention also resulted in new norm breaking ideas such as a sober end of the season instead of the traditional “drinking the bar dry” and managers taking employees out on hiking instead of going out for a beer.

The conclusion is that seasonal tourism industries need to work with hazardous alcohol- and drug consumption from a “whole village perspective”. Successful health promotion work among seasonal employees, needs collaboration between private and public sector and should be related to cultural norms as well as working- and living conditions in the particular context, in this case the tourist resort.

Background: Persons with Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD) represent a high-risk population according to health and lifestyles. In the present study, 48 adults with ADHD were recruited to a forthcoming lifestyle intervention. The ADHD sample was matched to a random sample of 42 persons from a Swedish general population that was selected from LIV (a Lifestyle-Performance-Health project).

Objective: To identify potential differences in health, lifestyle habits, and physical fitness between adults with and without ADHD.

Method: Self-reported questionnaires and physical fitness tests.

Results: The ADHD group show worse health outcomes with higher odds ratios for bad general health (OR;13 CI; (3,4–50)), and poorer lifestyle habits with higher odds ratios for low weekly exercise (OR; 3,8 CI; (1,2–13)). When adjusting for education, employment status, and cash margin, the ADHD sample did not show decreased aerobic fitness (OR; 0,9 CI; (0,8–1,0), but lower odds ratios for doing less sit-ups (OR; 0,6 CI; (0,4–0,9)) compared to the general population group.

Conclusion: It is not possible to prove that the ADHD diagnosis itself cause the worse health and lifestyle. Other lifestyle factors may have negative consequences of adult ADHD, such as lower levels of education, less succeed in working life, and minor financial margins.

Analysing Swedish population register data, the aim of the present study is to investigate differences in acute cardiovascular disease (CVD) in terms of stroke and myocardial infarction incidence between selfemployed individuals and paid employees and to study whether the associations vary by gender or across industrial sectors. A cohort of nearly 4.8 million employed individuals (6.7% self-employed in 2003) is followed-up for hospitalization due to stroke and myocardial infarction (2004–2008). Self-employed individuals are defined as sole proprietors and limited liability company owners according to legal type of their enterprise. Negative binomial regression models are applied to compare hospitalization rates between the self-employed and paid employees, adjusted for socioeconomic and demographic confounders. Two- and three-way interaction are tested between occupational group, industrial sector, and gender. Limited liability company owners have significantly lower hospitalization for myocardial infarction than paid employees. Regarding two-way interaction,sole proprietors have higher myocardial infarction hospitalization in trade, transport and communication, and lower in agriculture, forestry, and fishing than paid employees. Limited liability company owners have lower hospitalization rate for myocardial infarction than employees in several industries. The results highlight the importance of enterprise legal type and industrial sector for CVD among self-employed individuals.

Purpose – Small-scale enterprises are important for sustainable development in Europe and account for a significant proportion of private enterprises and their large contribution to employment. The overall research aim of the study is to explore workplace health management from the perspective of managers in small-scale enterprises (SSEs) in Norway and Sweden. Methodology – In-depth interviews with 18 managers in SSEs were conducted and a stepwise qualitative analysis was used. Findings – The findings are presented as two main patterns 1) Interorganisational dynamics and 2) Participative leadership. Managers iscussed opportunities for workplace health management to foster solidarity and flexibility in the workplace, the potential of employees for self-governance, and a cultural environment at the workplace characterized by safety, trust, care, loyalty and humour. The managers employed a process-oriented communicator style, were all-rounders, and demonstrated dedicated and distinct management. Managers in small-scale enterprises were lonely problem-solvers and experienced high and conflicting work demands and work-family conflicts. Research limitations – The findings should be interpreted with caution concerning representation of small-scale enterprises generally. The enterprises were recruited from an development project focusing on workplace health management and might therefore have a positive attitude. Originality – This study adds important knowledge regarding the preconditions for creating health-promoting workplaces in SSEs, an area for which limited research exists. The findings provide insights and knowledge about managers’ possibilities and obstacles in workplace health management. The findings could be transferrable to management in similar contexts if managers develop more awareness and knowledge. Practical implications – The managers obtain recommended information about what to do and how to address workplace health management in SSEs.

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore the gaps between experienced working conditions (WCs) and the perceived importance of these conditions in relation to subjective health in Swedish public sector workplaces.

Design/methodology/approach

In total, 379 employees answered questions concerning WCs and health. Nine WC areas were created to measure the gap between the experienced WCs and the perceived importance of each condition. These WC areas were: physical work environment, social relationships, communication, leadership, job control, recognition, self-development, workplace culture and work/life satisfaction. Subjective health was measured using mental ill health, well-being and general health.

Findings

The results indicated relatively large gaps in all nine WC areas. Leadership, physical work environment and work/life satisfaction in particular seemed to be problematic areas with relatively large gaps, meaning that employees have negative experiences of these areas while perceiving these areas as very important. Additionally, all WC areas were significantly related to subjective health, especially regarding mental ill health and well-being; the larger the gaps, the worse the subjective health. The WC areas of work/life satisfaction, self-development, social relationships, communication and recognition had the highest relationships and model fits. This indicates that it is most problematic from an employee’s point of view if there are large gaps within these WC areas.

Originality/value

This study improves the understanding of workplace health by exploring the gap between experienced WCs and the perceived importance of these conditions.

Self-employed is an interesting category when it comes to the phenomenon of sickness presence. To our knowledge, there are few studies of sickness presence among self-employed. In addition, earlier studies have indicated that self-employed have a high working pace and work many and irregular ours (Gunnarsson, Vingård, & Josephson, 2007; Nordenmark, Vinberg & Strandh, 2012; Parasuraman & Simmers, 2001), indicating that it can be problematic and frustrating to stay at home because of illness. Also, self-employed can be seen as a group with low replace ability, which can contribute to high sickness presence (Aronsson & Gustafsson, 2005).  Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to study the occurrence of sickness presence among self-employed in relation to employees, and to analyse if possible differences between the groups can be explained by different psychosocial working conditions related to work demands and time pressure.

European policymakers encourage individuals to become self-employed because it is a way to promote innovation and job-creation (Eurofound, 2017). The proportion of self-employed individuals in the employed labour force in Europe is around 15 percent. Most of the self-employed choose to become self-employed and have good working conditions and job quality. However, around one of five of the self-employed report that they have no alternative for work and they have lower levels of job quality and worse well-being compared to the former group of self-employed (ibid.). Several studies show that the self-employed have very high decision authority and control how work is organised (Hundley, 2001; Stephan & Roesler, 2010). Conversely, most research on the characteristics of the self-employed finds that they report higher job demands and a higher workload than employees do (Nordenmark et al., 2012; Stephan & Roesler, 2010). In general, research show that self-employment is associated with a higher degree of job satisfaction than regular employment (Benz & Frey, 2004; Blanchflower, 2004: Lange, 2012). Research show that high adjustment latitude can contribute to fewer days of health complaints associated with lower rates of sick leave and sickness presence (Gerich, 2014). However, according to a recent review research concerning other health outcomes among self-employed show contradictory results (Stephan, 2017). Although, research about sickness presence has increased during the last decade relatively few organizational scholars are familiar with the concept (Aronsson & Gustafsson, 2005; Johns, 2010). Sickness presence can cause productivity loss and higher organizational costs than sickness absence (Cooper & Dewe, 2008) and increase the risk for illness among individuals (Bergström et al., 2009). It can be assumed that sickness presence and health among self-employed are particularly crucial in this enterprise group due to that the smallness make them vulnerable.

This present study is based on the fifth European survey on working conditions (EWCS) 2015, which has become an established source of information on working conditions and employment in EU Member States. The independent variable – employment type consists of the categories self-employed (with and without employees) and employees. The main independent variable is sickness presence and is measured by the following question: Over the past 12 months did you work when you were sick (1=Yes, 0=No). Several indicators of work demands, time pressure and background variables are used in the analysis.

Preliminary study results show that self-employed report a higher level of sickness presence than employed; 52.4 verses 43.6 percent. The mean number of working hours is 43.5 among self-employed and 35.4 among employed. Self-employed have worked in the evenings on average nearly 7 days a month, which is more than twice as many times as for employees. It is also twice as usual that self-employed have worked on a Sunday compared to employees.  Self-employed have on average worked in the free time once or twice a month and employees have on average worked on their free time less often. All the differences between self-employed and employed are clearly significant and indicate a higher level of sickness presence and time pressure among self-employed. In a bivariate analysis, self-employed have a significant higher risk for reporting sickness presence. When controlling for the indicators of time pressure this relationship becomes insignificant. This means when holding the indicators of time pressure on a constant level there is no significant difference between self-employed and employed regarding the risk for reporting sickness presence. The indicator that explains the most of the difference in sickness presence between self-employed and employed is work in free time. All indicators of time pressure are significant related to the risk for sickness presence; the more hours worked and the more often worked in evenings, on Sundays and in the free time, the higher the risk for reporting sickness presence. All these variables are also significant associated to the risk for sickness presence when controlling for background characteristics. Age is significantly associated to sickness presence in the way that a higher age reduces the risk for reporting sickness presence. Women more often report sickness presence than men do. Civil status is not significantly associated to sickness presence. Having children increases the risk for sickness presence and having household economic difficulties increases the risk for reporting sickness presence. The indicators of time pressure contribute most to the level of explained variance in all performed regression models.

The results show that self-employed have a significant higher risk for reporting sickness presence than employed have. This difference is explained by the variables measuring time pressure, which indicates that the self-employed have a higher risk of reporting sickness presence because they experience more time pressure. In the extended paper, we will include other psychosocial working conditions as e.g. job control and consider different clusters of self-employed. The contribution to the small group meeting will be knowledge about sickness presence among different groups of self-employed and implications for researchers and practitioners.

Since 2011, the SOPHIE project has accumulated evidence regarding the influence of social and economic policies on the level of health across the population and on health inequalities according to socioeconomic position, gender, and immigrant status. Through comparative analyses and evaluation case studies across Europe, SOPHIE has shown how these health inequalities vary according to contexts in macroeconomics, social protection, labor market, built environment, housing, gender equity, and immigrant integration and may be reduced by equity-oriented policies in these fields. These studies can help public health and social justice advocates build a strong case for fairer social and economic policies that will lead to the reduction of health inequalities that most governments have included among their policy goals. In this article, we summarize the main findings and policy implications of the SOPHIE project and the lessons learned on civil society participation in research and results communication.