Healthy working life after a myocardial infarction: the impact of adverse conditions on remaining at work, event recurrence, and mortality

Cardiovascular disease is one of the main causes of disease in Sweden.

However, due to advances in care, death and disability resulting from a myocardial infarction (MI) have decreased considerably and the majority of individuals return to work after a MI.

Few studies have investigated the impact of occupational exposures on the likelihood of staying at work, as well as on the risk of reinfarction and mortality.

Additionally, there are few studies investigating the impact of conditions upon returning to work on the likelihood of remaining in employment. This study aims to: 1. Investigate the impact of conditions of employment and perceptions after a MI on permanence at work. 2. Investigate the impact of exposures after the MI and permanence at work after a MI; and 3.

Investigate the impact of exposures and work participation after an MI on reinfarction and death.This study is based on an existing cohort of MI patients between the years of 2002 and 2017 from the several registers: SWEDEHEART, Longitudinal Integrated Database for Health Insurance and Labour Market Studies, National Patient Registers, and Cause of Death Register, among others.

Data will be updated to 2020 and linked to several job exposure matrices (JEMs), which include estimates on several work exposures.

To investigate employment conditions after a MI, we will conduct a qualitative study with semi-structured interviews that assesses whether individuals have returned to the same duties and workload as prior to the MI, their experiences after work continuation, as well as whether routines were in place for their return.

This results will be used to develop a questionnarie for a quantitative study to explore the impact of these working conditions on permanence.This study will provide important information regarding modifiable risk factors for remaining, as well as for risk of reinfarction and mortality in order to promote a healthy working life for the Swedish aging workforce.